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WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 

by 

R M. AND H. M. Christeson ^ 



Illustrated with Photographs 

Decorated by 
KAY LITTLE 


JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 








COPYRIGHT, 1935 BY ALBERT WHITMAN 6? COMPANY 


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C,52 

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PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 

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JUN 13 1935 C-l A 83559 "T 





Father and Mother 













ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


We are grateful to Mr. Frank Buck for introducing the wild 
animal actors we have written about. To the owners, the 
trainers and the friends of these animals, we wish to express 
our appreciation for their invaluable help and guidance; Mr. 
R. C. Rupp, Mr. W. J. Richards, Miss Olga Celeste, Mr. Joseph 
Metcalf, Mr. Melvine Koonts, Mr. William Foix, Mrs. A. Gold' 
berg, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Gentry, Mr. George Emerson, Mr. 
A. Camp and Mr. “Slim” Thompson. 

For their encouragement and helpful criticisms, we are in' 
debted to Dr. Edwin D. Starbuck, Mrs. Herbert Searles and 
the Staff of the Institute of Character Research at the Univer' 
sity of Southern California; to Herbert Searles, Jr.; to Miss 
Louise Rowlands and to Miss Grace Dick. 

To Paramount, RKO and Fox Studios we express our appre' 
ciation for the photographs they have so generously contributed. 
Other photographs appear with the permission of Metro'Gold' 
wyn'Mayer Studio, Principal Pictures and United Artists Cor' 
poration. We thank Miss Olga Celeste, Mr. Melvine Koonts, 
and Mr. and Mrs. Tony Gentry for loaning pictures and Mr. 
Elmore Brauer and Mr. Ellis Dungan for the photographs they 
took for us. Other photographs appear through the courtesy 
of Bob Wallace and Eyre Powell. 

We would like to say “thank you” to the animals themselves, 
if they could understand! 


F. M. and H. M. Christeson 


I have known and respected Olga Celeste, the woman trainer, 
since she first came to Chicago to join Big Otto’s Circus in 
Riverside Park when she was just a girl of fourteen or fifteen. I 
have seen her take a savage leopard straight from the jungle, 
and through kindness and patience make a spendid actor of the 
animal. So far as I know, she is the only person who has ever 
been able to train a black leopard, the most vicious animal for 
its weight in the world. 

Jackie, the famous lion described in this book, was a tiny cub 
taking his milk from a bottle handed him by Melvine Koonts 
when I first saw him; and I watched him grow under Mel vine’s 
clever guidance into the greatest of all wild animal actors. 

So I have found this book intensely interesting, and it seems 
to me that these “wild animal actors” deserve more credit than 
some of the Hollywood stars who get their names in lights. 
While these stars seemingly are as temperamental as some of 
the animals, their directors don’t run the dangerous risk of fangs 
and claws that comes constantly to the trainers of these animal 
actors. 



CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Anna May, The Elephant. 19 

Colonel, The Leaping Tiger....... 39 

Jackie, The Wrestling Lion... .. 49 

Eckie, The Leopard. 72 

Gertie, The Jaguar. 93 

Jalmers and Jockamo, South American Pumas. 99 

Jiggs, The Chimpanzee. 109 

Mary, The Rhinoceros. 130 

Oscar, The Penguin. 138 














LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

A baby lion motion picture actor.Frontispiece 

Anna May rescues Buster Crabbe. 18 

Mr. Metcalf stations Jenny at the Zoo gates. 23 

Mr. Metcalf led Anna May down Hollywood Boulevard—. 24 

Wally Albright and Anna May rest between shots... 37 

“Lift your head and I’ll scratch under your chin,” 

says Madame Olga. 38 

Colonel will sneak through jungle grasses. 43 

Colonel is a remarkably fine performer. 44 

Jackie pounces upon his trainer. 53 

“Jump in, and I’ll give you a ride,” says Jackie’s trainer. 54 

Jackie when he was three weeks old. 57 

Jackie and his second birthday cake. 61 

Jackie plays dead . 63 

Jackie with Melvine Koonts as Tartan. 64 

Madame Olga displays Olga’s claws to a nature study class 75 

Eckie meets the captain of the S.S. Emma Alexander. 76 

Midnight is a rare black leopard... 85 

Madame Olga produced a plate of raw meat. 86 

Eckie poses for Mr. Wheeler Williams. 92 

Gertie rehearses her radio speech for Mr. Frank Buck and 

Madame Olga. 97 

Jalmers was the guest of honor at the luncheon. 98 





















LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Cont’d) 

PAGE 

Jockamo’s babies hide behind their mother.. 107 

Jiggs with Mr. and Mrs. Gentry........ 108 

Jiggs rests on a bench. Ill 

Jiggs streaked up the pole. 114 

Jiggs paused half way down the pole.... 115 

“Is my costume all right?” asks Jiggs of Our Gang. 119 

Jiggs and Buster Crabbe . 120 

Jiggs and Baby Boy with Johnny Weissmuller. 127 

Johnny Weissmuller rides Mary. 128 

A personality portrait of Oscar. 139 

Oscar has his voice tested at RKO Studios. 147 

“Whats that?” asks Edna May Oliver of Oscar. 148 














































































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CHAPTER ONE 

ANNA MAY 
THE ELEPHANT 


A PINKISH BABY ELEPHANT, scarcely two 
years old and barely three feet high, sailed away 
from her native India for America and a motion 
picture career. That was twenty'five years ago. Today, 
Anna May is a veteran screen actress among hundreds 
of wild animal actors. 

When the script, as the written story of a film is 
called, is placed in a director’s hands and he sees that an 
elephant appears in the cast, he thinks of Anna May. 
[ 19 } 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


This is natural, since Anna May has worked in more 
motion pictures than any other elephant in the United 
States. Her intelligence, her willingness to work and her 
long record of experience are well known in Hollywood. 

Every day in the year, old residents of Los Angeles 
and groups of out-of-town sightseers, make their way to 
the California Zoological Gardens on Mission Road. 

HOME OF ONE HUNDRED WILD ANIMAL MOVIE ACTORS 

Visitors read this legend as they turn into the main 
driveway, pass a large, high, stone block surmounted by 
a life-like group of father, mother, and baby elephants, 
and enter the open gates of the Zoo grounds. 

Colonel Selig, now a retired veteran motion picture 
producer who was the first to put wild animals in front 
of a motion picture camera, founded the Zoo in 1910. 
He had been filming his pictures at his studio in Chicago, 
renting the wild animals he needed from “Big Otto’s” 
menagerie. With the decision to move to Southern Cal¬ 
ifornia, where climate and scenery are ideal for picture 
work, Colonel Selig bought Big Otto’s collection and 
made arrangements to transport his newly acquired ani¬ 
mals to the Pacific Coast. 


[ 20 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Fifty acres were purchased in what is now East Los 
Angeles, and a group of workmen was employed to divide 
the Selig Wild Animal Farm into sections and to prepare 
it for immediate occupancy. To help create a natural 
environment for each kind of animal, trees, grasses and 
shrubs were imported from their native countries, Africa, 
Asia and Australia. Gravel walks were laid out under 
shade trees and vine-covered trellises, and a large, rec- 
tangular plot of ground at the rear of the farm was en- 
closed with high, strong wire fencing. 

Inside the enclosure were planted tropical trees and 
grasses and it was not long until the jungle growth flour¬ 
ishing under the California sun, transformed it into a 
perfect natural setting for the filming of jungle pictures. 
It was the first jungle set in the picture business. The 
only other set of its kind to be found today is the one 
located near Hollywood, on the lot of the Universal Pic¬ 
ture Studios at Universal City. 

Close to the jungle set, stands a big, gray, frame bam 
—Anna May's shelter from wind and rain, and her bed 
at night. When she is not working in a picture she is usu¬ 
ally staked out in the stockade in front of the bam where 
she suns herself at the side of her old friend Jenny. 


[ 21 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


While Jenny is older in years than Anna May, sixty- 
five, the prime of life for an elephant, she is no wiser. 
Charlie Murphy, who used to train animals for Universal 
Studios, brought her out to the west coast from Kansas 
City and started her working in pictures at Universal 
City. Jenny at that time had a horse for a companion, 
but she has Anna May now and the two hate to be 
separated. 

On Sunday afternoons when Mr. Metcalf, their 
trainer, takes Jenny out of the barn, she trumpets piteous¬ 
ly as though she were never going to see her friend again. 
It is Jenny’s duty to stand just outside the Zoo entrance 
on Sundays while Anna May is performing her part of 
the day’s work. Their trainer claims that anyone can see 
by the way Jenny fidgets and fusses that she is im¬ 
patient to be back again with Anna May. When the 
two are reunited, they trumpet and throw their trunks 
over each other’s backs as though they were welcoming 
one another after a long parting. 

Mr. Metcalf stations Jenny at the gates, returns to 
the bam and takes down a red velvet elephant blanket 
from its hook on the wall. At the command, “Down, 
Anna,” Anna May slowly sinks to her knees. The dust 


[ 22 ] 
































. . 










































WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


particles are carefully brushed from around her button- 
like eyes, and every vestige of straw is swept from her 
back. Then the velvet blanket is spread across her broad 
sides and the howdah, that box-like seat, is swung up 
into place on her strong back and firmly strapped on. 

She is ready now to be led out to the grassy plot 
where she slides in between two high platforms, each 
reached by a set of steps. On one platform, Mrs. Met¬ 
calf stands and calls, “Right this way for an elephant 
ride. Come and ride the elephant for only ten cents. 
Right this way, boys and girls. If you have never ridden 
an elephant now is your chance. Step right up, please!” 

The first two or three children to reach one platform 
are helped into the howdah and strapped in by a silken 
cord. The children on the opposite platform step cau¬ 
tiously into the “howdy” as circus people call the seat, 
and sit with their backs against those who were seated 
first. When all is ready, at the proper signal from her 
trainer Anna May moves off in her rhythmic, lumbering 
gait, carrying eight slightly bobbing but delighted pass¬ 
engers on her gently heaving back. 

Back and forth, back and forth, over the same short 
route, Anna May’s trainer leads her every Sunday and 


[ 25 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


gentle Anna May never complains. She may remember 
and wish for the days when, as a baby elephant, she was 
allowed any place on the Zoo grounds, with a cowbell 
tied on a cord about her neck to tell of her whereabouts. 

Madame Olga Celeste, the first woman trainer to 
work with animals in front of a motion picture camera, 
trained animals for Colonel Selig’s first wild animal pn> 
ductions. When her employer moved his business to 
California, she came with him and has been a trainer 
on the Zoo staff ever since. 

“I remember when Colonel Selig sent to India for an 
elephant to play in the first serial picture ever filmed in 
this country —The Adventures of Kathleen ,” the little 
Swedish trainer will tell you when she is urged to talk 
about Anna May’s babyhood. “Anna May was only 
eighteen months old when she arrived here on the coast. 
I can see that little thing now, painted white from trunk 
to tail for her role of the sacred white elephant of India. 
She was a darling. We all grew very fond of her, and she 
of us. She was allowed to roam the grounds, but we ah 
ways knew where she was by the tinkle of her cowbell. 
She liked to follow people and would trot along in back 
of any one of us, and if she thought we were trying to 

[ 26 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


leave her, she would stop and angrily stamp one of her 
little feet. 

“The Zoo office over in the eucalyptus grove was one 
of her favorite haunts because she frequently found some' 
one there who would give her sweetmeats. It was on one 
of these porch visits that Anna May learned a lesson she 
will never forget. It was like this. One of the windows 
had been left open and in front of it, on a desk, stood a 
newly filled inkwell. Anna May clambered up the steps 
and nosed around the porch. Usually, if she waited for 
a few minutes and no one appeared, she would stand in 
the doorway—she couldn’t get through but she would 
squeeze in as far as she could—and stamp and squeal to 
attract attention. 

“On this particular day, she lumbered up the stairs 
and before she had become impatient for someone to ap- 
pear, she discovered the open window. In less time than 
it takes to tell it, her little trunk felt over the desk and 
came to rest upon the inkwell, a new and a very strange 
object. Naturally curious, as all elephants are, she picked 
it up and tipped it at such an angle that the contents 
spilled straight into her trunk! What a sight she was, 
standing there helpless, squealing at the top of her voice 


[ 27 ] 









WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


and dripping blue ink. Of course we hurried to wash 
out her trunk for her and you may be sure that she never 
again tampered with an inkwell. But her curiosity is 
still and always will be keen.” 

From Madame Olga we learn that a Mr. Lang was 
Anna May’s first trainer. He was given full charge of 
her when she first arrived at the Zoo after her long jour¬ 
ney from India. He gave her the best of care. A shed 
was built for her to sleep in, and several times during the 
night someone looked in to see that she was safe and com¬ 
fortable. Her food, rice cooked in milk, was given to her 
in a bottle made from a stalk of bamboo. One end of the 
hollow bamboo section was sharpened and filled with the 
gruel. Then Mr. Lang tilted Anna May back on her hind 
legs and let the mixture pour down her throat. She lived 
on this soft diet until she was about three years old when 
hay and vegetables were gradually added so that she was 
forced to eat with her trunk. 

About this time, she was taught a clever little act 
which she performed for Zoo visitors. She was seated at 
a table, and given a bell to ring when she was ready to 
be served. When she picked up the bell with her trunk 
and gave it a vigorous ring, Mr. Lang appeared as a waiter, 


[ 28 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


with a tray of bananas. These she ate with great relish 
and then rang for more—and still more. At last she rose 
from the table, walked over to a small bed that had been 
constructed for the act, lay down on it and pulled up the 
covers with her trunk. She seemed to be sleeping peace' 
fully. All at once she sat up and trumpeted distressingly 
as though she were in great pain. Her trainer rushed in. 

“What in the world is the matter with you, Anna 
May? Are you sick? Do you want to see a doctor?” he 
anxiously asked. 

Anna May nodded weakly and lay back. Mr. Lang 
then reappeared as a doctor carrying a little black bag. 
He walked over to the patient, leaned over the bed, shook 
an accusing finger at her and said, “You aren’t sick. All 
the matter with you is, you want your bottle.” He then 
produced the bamboo bottle and when he gave it to Anna 
May she lay back to drink her gruel, completely cured. 

Madame Olga has many fond and amusing recollec' 
tions of her old friend’s first moving picture experiences. 

“Something happened during the filming of The Ad¬ 
ventures of Kathleen , which was her first picture, that 
almost proved a tragedy at the time, but it is amusing to 
tell about now,” she will tell you. “In those days, the ele- 
[ 29 ] 







WILD ANIM A L A CTO R S 

phants were housed in some old car bams that used to be 
across the street from the main entrance to the Zoo. On 
this particular day all the elephants but Anna May and 
an old male were being used. They were the only two 
left in the bams. We were all back on the set, dressed in 
flowing Indian robes, ready for the director’s signal, when 
all at once we heard loud trumpeting from the bams. 
Tillie, an old elephant that had taken quite a fancy to 
Anna May, started off. Whether or not she thought the 
old male was chewing up her friend, we’ll never know; 
but off she dashed. 

“■Her excited exit served to start the other elephants 
on a stampede. Away they went, crashing into and break' 
ing down every thing in their path. Kathleen and her 
leading man were riding in a howdah on one of them, 
and when the herd suddenly swung along under some 
trees, the low branches beat the howdah to pieces and 
knocked them both out. Miss Williams, who was playing 
the part of Kathleen, afterward said that she and her com' 
panion owed their lives to Curly Steckler, one of the 
trainers, who managed to keep their elephant in the rear 
so that when they fell off there were no elephants com' 
ing to trample them. 

[ 30 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


“When the stampeding herd came to the lagoon in 
front of the Zoo office, they rushed around the end of 
it—that is, all but one. He slipped in head first and when 
the confusion was all over, it took the combined efforts 
of the others to pull him out of the mud and water. I can 
laugh at the whole thing now, but when I was clinging 
desperately to one of the elephants and being tossed about 
like a piece of paper in the wind, it wasn’t so funny. And 
Anna May was responsible for it all! 

“But she is a darling,’’ Anna May’s friend will con' 
elude. “She has a lovely disposition, is as gentle as she 
can be because she has always been around people who 
have been kind to her and who have made a pet of her. 
She is a patient creature too. A few years ago, Miss Agnes 
Campbell of the University of California at Los Angeles, 
sculptured an elephant and used Anna May for a model. 
She was surprised to find that Anna May could hold a 
pose for from five to ten minutes without moving. We 
appreciate this trait of being able to wait patiently in pic- 
ture work for there are times when patience above every¬ 
thing else is demanded.” 

Motion picture actors and actresses are often called 
upon to make personal appearances and Anna May is no 
[ 31 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


exception. When the picture, Gabriel Over the White 
House , was shown at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, Anna 
May was taken by truck from her home at the Zoo, to 
the door of the Hollywood theatre. The afternoon of the 
opening, Mr. Metcalf led her down Hollywood Boule- 
vard with Mrs. Metcalf and one of the theatre usherettes 
riding in the howdah. Placards on Anna May’s broad 
sides advertised the screen attraction. One is likely to see 
unusual sights at any time on this famous thoroughfare, 
and Anna May received the customary interested stares 
from pedestrians and passing motorists. 

At the theatre, it was her duty to carry passengers 
up and down the long, open forecourt. One of the plat- 
forms used on Sundays at the Zoo had been brought along 
and placed at the front end of the court. Mrs. Metcalf as 
usual, assisted customers into the howdah and reported 
after their engagement was over that the many adults who 
rode on Anna May enjoyed it as much as the children did. 

During Anna May’s rest periods, she stood in one 
comer of the court, a good Republican elephant, while 
across the way, in an opposite corner, two donkeys 
browsed in a pen bearing signs, “We Are Democrats.” 

Anna May’s trainer is a slow-spoken, kindly man who 


[ 32 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


says, “People often ask me what I do to prepare Anna 
for a scene when we are working in pictures. If she is 
to walk from here to that tree, stop, trumpet, and then 
pick up the man lying on the ground, I rehearse her a 
couple of times. I walk along beside her and show her 
just what I want her to do, let her do it once or twice, 
and then when the cameras are ready, she will go right 
through with the same action. If the sound apparatus is 
not on, I can call to her. They sometimes take a silent 
shot and put the sound in later. They often have to shoot 
a scene two or three times before they are satisfied with 
it, but Anna will work as long as we want her to. 

“Man has never found a more willing, intelligent 
worker than the Asiatic elephant that for centuries has 
been broken and trained by natives called “mahouts.” In 
India, these native trainers break the elephants to every 
kind of work imaginable, from carrying hunters to the 
jungles and their royal masters in parades, to pulling logs 
out of rivers and stacking them in neat piles in the lumber 
yards. 

“There is a lot of difference between the elephants 
that come from Asia and those that are natives of Africa. 
The African is bigger, his trunk is longer, his ears are 


[ 33 ] 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


much larger and flop back and forth like sails on a ship. 
His back slopes up from his tail to his shoulders, his 
hide is tougher, his forehead curves out, and he has three 
toes on his front feet and four on his hind feet. Indian 
elephants, like Anna and Jenny, are somewhat smaller, 
their foreheads curve inward above the eyes, they are 
higher in the middle of the back than at the shoulder 
and they have five toes on their front feet and four on 
their hind feet. 

“Both the male and the female of the African species 
have tusks, but only the male of the Indian has tusks of 
any size; those of the female are very short. When we 
want an elephant to play in a picture with an African 
background, we use Anna, clamp a pair of big artificial 
ears and tusks over her smaller ears and tusks, and presto 
—she is an African elephant! 

“That is what we had to do when she played the part 
of Jumbo, P. T. Bamum’s famous elephant, in the picture 
The Mighty Barnum. They were all ready to shoot a 
scene when they decided that Anna wasn’t large enough, 
for Jumbo was known the world over for his size. 
They gave me five minutes to make Anna bigger! The 
only thing I could do was to strap a mattress over her 


[ 34 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


back and down her sides and cover it with a big elephant 
blanket. We tried it and it worked. But let me tell you 
it’s a puzzling job to make an elephant bigger—and in five 
minutes.” 

“People wonder why we see so few baby elephants 
in captivity. The reason is that elephants seldom breed 
outside the jungles. That doesn’t bother circuses and 
zoos, for they would rather import mature elephants than 
have the care and the feeding of young animals. Their 
attitude is easily understood when you stop to realize that 
elephants don’t mature until they are from thirty to 
thirty'five years old. It is less trouble and much cheaper 
to let someone else keep them until they are full grown. 

“An elephant’s grocery bill for a year is no small item 
in an expense account! Anna eats a bale of hay every 
twentyTour hours, a wash tub full of oats and bran with 
salt and soda mixed in, and very generous helpings of 
fruits and vegetables. One of her favorite vegetables is 
onions and she will eat the strongest kind until the tears 
come to her eyes. She likes tobacco too, and picks up 
every cigar and cigarette stub she can find. A smoking 
cigarette is easily taken care of. She puts one of her big 
feet on it, puts it out and then picks it up and eats it. 


[ 35 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


In the picture Hypnotized, with the Two Black Crows, 
she took a plug of tobacco out of one of their pockets. 

“Anna’s picture career has only begun when you 
stop to realize that elephants in captivity live to the av¬ 
erage age of about eighty years. She is now only a few 
years past twenty-five but she has a long list of pictures to 
her credit already. You saw her in Tarzan of the Apes, 
Zoo in Budapest, Tarzan the Fearless, Tarzan and His Mate, 
The Mighty Barnum, and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer.” 

If Anna May’s trainer were asked if his years of ex¬ 
perience with elephants have not taught him a great deal 
about them he would reply, “I know a lot about ele¬ 
phants but a person could never learn all there is to know 
about them. I have worked with them for thirty-seven 
years and have broken one hundred thirty-one, but there 
is always something new to learn. A day never passes 
that Anna doesn’t do something new, some little thing 
I have never before seen her do. Elephants are like mon¬ 
keys that way—always up to new tricks. Anna has been 
unusually successful in pictures because she is very intelli¬ 
gent, has a fine disposition, remembers what I teach her 
and works willingly. I have known close to five hundred 
elephants in my day and Anna beats them all!” 


[ 36 ] 
















































CHAPTER TWO 

COLONEL 

THE LEAPING TIGER 

T WENTY years ago Lady, Colonel’s mother, lay 
in the shifting jungle shadows in Bengal, a prov¬ 
ince of British India. The dark stripes on her 
tawny coat made her almost invisible as she crouched 
against the broad blades of yellow grass. 

At sundown she crept from her lair and slunk through 
grass and underbrush to spring upon an unsuspecting 
deer, antelope, or peafowl for her evening meal. Her 

[ 39 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


thirst was quenched by the cool waters of the nearest 
waterhole. 

But Lady was not destined to spend her life in this 
wild state. The day came when she was captured, put 
into a cage and placed aboard the steamer that was to 
carry her across the ocean to her new home in the United 
States. In California Colonel Selig was importing wild 
animals to appear in the motion pictures he was produc- 
ing, and Lady was to be one of the first tigers to be pho¬ 
tographed by the motion picture camera. 

She came to the Selig Zoo without a name, but all 
who became acquainted with her agreed that she should 
be called something that typified her poise, grace, and 
gentle manners and that no name could be more fitting 
than “Lady.” 

Lady’s training was begun as soon as she felt at home. 
Then followed years in which the beautiful, intelligent, 
young tigress proved that she was not only an apt pupil 
and a dependable worker, but an actress of no little abil¬ 
ity as well. When the story of a picture called for a tiger 
that could be petted, Lady was given the part. Her mil d 
even disposition insured the safety of anyone who worked 


[ 40 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


with her, providing he treated her kindly and with re' 
spect. 

During the last few months of her life, Lady suffered 
from rheumatism in her hind legs. But up to the time of 
her death in November, 1933, she was never too lame to 
limp to the front bars of her cage when she sighted her 
old friend Madame Olga coming. The old tigress always 
affectionately sniffed the little trainer’s fingers and fairly 
purred with delight whenever her visitor said, “Lift your 
head, baby, and I will scratch under your chin. Now turn 
around so I can reach your back.” 

Lady was a proud mother when she gave birth to 
Colonel, a pound'and'a'half ball of sandy fur that did 
nothing all day but drink her warm milk and snuggle up 
beside her in the clean straw. Then the natural changes 
in the tiny cub’s development came; his pale yellow eyes 
opened, his little legs that at first were wobbly underpin' 
nings grew stronger and stronger until he was scamper' 
ing from one end of the cage to the other; he was ready 
now to be weaned from his mother and placed in the 
“kindergarten,” a sunny ground pen set aside for the 
baby cat animals. 


[ 41 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Baby pumas scrambled over one another in one sec¬ 
tion of the roomy enclosure; baby lions licked each other, 
blinked and yawned as they sunned themselves in their 
section of the kindergarten; spotted leopards scampered 
up and down an old tree trunk that stood in one comer 
of their pen. In the space next to the leopards, some 
frisky little tigers paid little or no attention to their new 
playmate who had come to join their kindergarten class. 

Every day a trainer stepped into each section of the 
pen, sat down and quietly watched the lively youngsters 
as they played and rolled about on the logs, stumps and 
discarded wooden arena balls. These daily visits accus¬ 
tomed the animals to the presence of a human being and 
to the sound of a friendly voice. They gave to the trainer 
the opportunity of studying and becoming acquainted 
with the habits, characteristics and natural abilities of 
each animal. As the months passed, the trainer noticed 
that Colonel possessed remarkable jumping ability, that 
he delighted in jumping from stump to log and back again. 
And so, when Colonel’s term in the kindergarten was 
over and he was old enough and ready for his first les¬ 
sons in the course that every performing wild animal 


[ 42 ] 





































WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


must pass, he was taken into the arena for his course. 

When Colonel had been introduced to his seat, or 
pedestal, and had learned that when he was given the 
command “Seat,” he was to jump up onto his pedestal 
and stay there until he was told to get down, he was 
ready for the next lesson to be mastered. From the first 
day of training, Colonel displayed keen intelligence and 
his readiness and ability to learn was a constant source 
of pleasure and satisfaction to his own special trainer. 

Colonel soon became known as the “jumping tiger” 
and for the past nine years, Colonel has earned the praises 
and admiration of the Zoo visitors who watch his per¬ 
formance in the out-of-doors steel arena. There is inde¬ 
scribable beauty and grace of movement in the play of the 
powerful, supple muscles beneath his beautifully striped, 
reddish hide, as he faultlessly executes his thrilling jump¬ 
ing feats. 

In pictures, as in the arena, Colonel is a remarkably 
fine performer. On the proper cue he will sneak through 
the jungle grass, walk just so far and stop, climb a tree up 
to a certain spot, make a high leap (he recently jumped 
out of a twelve foot pit), carry a dummy down the jungle 


[ 45 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


trail, or do anything that he is told to do within a tiger’s 
ability. 

If the action of the story calls for him to chase a man 
across a clearing and up a tree, the bit is rehearsed several 
times. Colonel is let out of his temporary cage on the 
jungle set. He runs across the clearing to a tree from the 
branches of which is dangling a piece of meat, tied onto 
the end of a stick. The person holding the stick can raise 
the meat higher and higher which forces Colonel to climb 
in order to reach the tempting morsel. After the rehearsal, 
he is put into his cage and the piece of meat is given him. 

Then when the cameras are ready, a closeup is taken 
of the actor running panic-stricken across the clearing. 
The next shot is a closeup of Colonel covering the same 
ground. Another of the actor, this time in the act of 
climbing the tree. This shot is followed by one of Colonel 
at the foot of the tree growling at the piece of meat he 
would like to have. But it appears that he is growling 
menacingly at the man who is supposed to be up in the 
branches. Colonel remembers that he climbed the tree 
after the meat and so he climbs again. These shots of the 
Colonel and the actor may be taken on different days, 


[ 46 ] 









WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


but when they are strung along together and reeled off 
in a film, it looks for all the world as though the tiger 
chased the man into the tree. 

“We barely missed having some serious trouble in just 
such a scene one time,” says Madame Olga. “A number 
of people were standing around ready for the next shot 
which was to follow Colonel climbing the tree. As long 
as the cameras are grinding he is not supposed to have 
the meat. This time, one of the assistant trainers lowered 
the piece too far, and Colonel grabbed it. That was the 
first mistake, and the second was that it contained a bone. 
I cautioned everyone to stand motionless while he 
charged around the lot with it and then settled down to 
eat the meat. For the next fifteen minutes, we all stood 
perfectly still while he chewed on that bone. 

“When he had finished, I called to him and indicated 
with my whip that he should go into his cage. He obedi¬ 
ently and calmly walked over to it and when we heard 
the door click shut behind him we all took our first deep 
breath. One false move on someone’s part might have 
given him the impression that the meat was going to be 
taken from him, and there is no telling what his reactions 


[ 47 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


would have been. It is at a time like that when a soothing 
voice, good judgment, and steady nerves are absolutely 
necessary.” 

Under ordinary circumstances, when there are no mis¬ 
takes made by the persons working with him, Colonel can 
always be depended upon for a perfect performance. He 
is intolerant of just one thing. He will not allow anyone, 
not even his old friend Madame Olga, to touch his head 
but he does enjoy, or at least he does not mind, an affec¬ 
tionate pat on the back or hind quarters. From his famous 
mother he inherited a fine disposition, intelligence, and 
abilities that have enabled him to earn a recognized place 
in arena performance and motion picture work alike. 
Colonel is affectionately referred to by the trainers at the 
Zoo, as a “grand old trouper.” 




CHAPTER THREE 

JACKIE 

THE WRESTLING LION 

A T three o’clock there will be a wild animal per- 
formance in the outdoor steel arena,” an¬ 
nounces a voice over the loud speaker every 
afternoon at the California Zoological Gardens. 

Picnic parties under the tropical shade trees gather up 
their baskets, fathers and mothers call their children from 
the merry-go-round and the pony rides, and the last pea¬ 
nut in the bag is fed to the monkeys. By three o’clock, 

[ 49 ] 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


the green park benches set row upon row facing the 
arena, are filled with Zoo visitors, watching the men in' 
side the large, steel barred enclosure carry in and arrange 
the stage properties that are to be used in the perform' 
ance. On the stroke of the hour, all eyes are fixed expect' 
antly on the low door which opens into the passageway 
leading to the rows of cages. 

Again the voice of the announcer. “We will now pre' 
sent the most unusual wild animal act ever presented any' 
where. We will now introduce Jackie, the world’s most 
famous lion and incidentally the most valuable lion in 
history. Jackie is a full grown, light'maned Nubian lion, 
eight years old. He has been trained since he was a cub 
only a few weeks old by Mr. Melvine Koonts, his present 
trainer. I call your attention to the fact that Jackie is the 
only lion in the world today that any trainer would per' 
mit to slap him with his open paw. Such a slap usually 
means a serious accident or certain death. We now take 
pleasure in presenting Mr. Melvine Koontz, and his wres' 
tling lion, Jackie!” 

A young man in spotless white shirt and trousers 
steps into the arena and acknowledges the introduction 


[ 50 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


with a bow. Madame Olga at her post outside the bars, 
pulls a lever which raises the arena door and through the 
opening walks—Jackie. 

The strains of a familiar tune float out of the radio as 
Jackie bounds over to his master, rises on his hind legs 
and throws his front legs over his trainer’s shoulders. 
There they stand, the man with his face and head buried 
in the shaggy mane of the lion that towers above him. 

“That’s right, love me a little,” coaxes Jackie’s trainer 
as he affectionately pats the lion’s sleek sides. 

“Oh, you want to box, do you?” when Jackie sud¬ 
denly flashes a huge paw in the air. The paw and a hand 
meet with a resounding smack. They exchange fast, play¬ 
ful blows. The man slaps the beast on the head, ribs, 
hind quarters or any place that presents an opportunity. 
The lion responds with nips at the man’s shirt and trou¬ 
sers and delivers well placed blows that send his opponent 
sprawling upon the floor. The triumphant Jackie stands 
over his prostrate trainer with a comical “just-try-to-get- 
up” expression on his solemn face. 

“Each time the man attempts to gain a footing, the 
wily Jackie knocks or pushes him back to the floor and 


[5i] 








WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


then pounces upon him. One hundred fifty pounds of 
man and four hundred fifty pounds of lion lock legs and 
the wrestling match is on. A flash of white on top and 
then on the bottom as the two roll over and over, back 
and forth across the arena floor. 

It is plain to be seen that the lion thoroughly enjoys 
the rough tussle but when his completely disheveled mas¬ 
ter cries, “Quit it, Jackie, that’s enough,’’ the beast is 
smart enough to take his cue and stop. 

“Let’s play wheelbarrow,’’ suggests Mr. Koontz, as he 
playfully picks up Jackie’s hind legs and steers him across 
the arena floor. All four feet on the ground again, Jackie 
takes a sudden notion to play dead, or perhaps his master 
tells him to in a tone not audible to the audience. At any 
rate, the animal flops down, stretches out full length and 
lies without moving a muscle. 

His trainer walks over to him and holds a piece of a 
whip in front of the lion’s nose. “See this little piece of 
whip, Jackie?” he says. “I’m going to throw it and I 
want you to get it and bring it back to me. Now get up 
lazy bones, I’m going to throw it. Here it goes!” But 
Jackie lies still, disinterested and undisturbed. 


[ 52 ] 


























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WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


“Aren’t you going to get that stick?” demands the 
man. No response. He takes a few steps forward and 
just before he reaches the disobedient Jackie, the lion 
slowly and deliberately rises to his feet, walks calmly over 
to the piece of whip and trots back with it in his mouth. 

“Thank you. Now I will do something for you,” 
promises the man as he rewards Jackie with a pat. “See 
this?” as he rolls out a small wagon from the rear of the 
arena. The cart is painted red and white and specially 
constructed with a seat towards the back and the front 
half left open. 

“Jump in,” directs Jackie’s playmate, “and I will give 
you a nice ride.” 

Jackie stands for a moment as though considering the 
advisability of getting into such a contraption, but at the 
command, “Hurry up, jump in,” he leaps into the cart. 
His trainer picks up the shafts and starts on a dog trot 
around the arena, looking back every now and then at 
his passenger. Jackie sits with his hind quarters and tail 
in the bottom of the wagon, his forelegs resting on the 
seat, his tawny head and one paw hanging limply over 
the side. 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


The children in the audience giggle and clap for who 
among them has not given a cat or a dog a ride in a wagon 
or doll buggy; and here was a wild animal, a lion to be 
exact, being hauled about in this familiar fashion. 

“That’s all now,” Jackie is informed as the cart is 
brought to a standstill in the center of the ring. “Now I 
would like a ride,” announces Mr. Koonts. “Get out, 
will you please?” But Jackie refuses to budge. He sits 
comfortably back with an expression on his face that 
seems to say, “I’m having a fine time, thank you and I am 
not ready to get out.” The man takes hold of the stub' 
born animal’s tail but no amount of pulling has any efFect. 
Jackie refuses to move until his trainer makes a threaten' 
ing advance which must be his signal, for he then loses 
no time in jumping out. 

“Now I’ll get in front and steer with the shafts,” sug' 
gests Mr. Koontz,,” and you put your big feet in the back 
of the wagon and push me.” 

Jackie thinks the arrangement quite satisfactory for 
he walks around to the rear of the cart, rises on his hin d 
legs, places his front feet against the back of the seat, 
pushes, and starts the wheels moving. The mischievous 


[ 56 ] 







JACKIE WHEN HE WAS THREE WEEKS OLD 


[? 7 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Jackie dutifully pushes as he walks along on his hind legs, 
but he slyly leans forward to nip the seat of his trainer’s 
trousers as he steers the wagon. 

“It’s time now to show the people out there what a 
big baby you are,” reminds Jackie’s trainer as they end 
their ride. “Come over here to the front of the arena.” 
Jackie obediently walks to the front bars of the arena, 
stands on his hind legs, slips his front legs through the 
bars and rests his elbows on a crossbar with his paws 
hanging limply outside. The audience laughs heartily at 
Jackie’s innocent pose. 

Jackie’s remarkable act draws to a close when his mas' 
ter straddles his strong back and rides him to the arena 
door. 

Isn’t such a demonstration dangerous? How does the 
man dare treat the lion as though he were a big dog? 
people in the audience ask each other. How indeed? 
That is a question to ask the animal’s trainer and he re- 
plies, “People who watch our act get the impression we 
are just playing and that is perfectly true. I didn’t train 
Jackie to do any of those stunts. When he was only a 
few weeks old I began taking him out every day for a 


[ 58 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


romp on the lawn. I didn’t teach him to wrestle, that 
just developed in our play. Jackie has grown up in that 
spirit of play. 

“When he was about four months old, a studio want' 
ed a lion cub to play in a picture and they chose Jackie. 
It was time for him to be weaned from his mother so 
that it was all right to take him from her. He was given 
to me to care for because he was used to me. I took him 
from Stubby, his mother, one morning and put him in a 
little red cage on wheels. I went at noon to see how he 
was and the sight of me coming excited him so that he 
banged his head against the bars as he paced back and 
forth. The scars on his forehead today are from those 
bruises. 

“He gradually became used to his own cage but he 
was never in it very long at a time. I figured I would 
have to be with him as much as possible until he was 
over missing his mother, so I let him run loose and he 
followed me every place I went. If I had work to do up 
at the front of the grounds, he was right there and if I 
was busy at the back, he was at my heels. He was with 
me even at night for awhile! I had put a bed for myself 


[ 59 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


in one comer of a shed and a box of straw in another cor' 
ner for him. The first night we slept in our makeshift 
bedroom, I had no sooner dropped off to sleep than I 
wakened with a start. There was Jackie on my bed. From 
then on, for a month, he slept in the same bed with me 
and would curl up as close to my body as he could get. 

“He used to be with me when I went to the lunch 
stand we had at that time, and this is an example of how 
smart he is. He saw me open the refrigerator door to 
get milk and in some way he learned how to open that 
door. He would stick in a paw and pull out a bottle of 
milk onto the floor. Whenever we found broken bottles 
and spilled milk we knew who had been there. I of 
course had to put a stop to that sort of thing! 

“Jackie’s first motion picture experience came as I 
said before when a studio wanted a cub for a role. In this 
picture, a comedy, a man comes home late at night, opens 
the front door and stumbles over a cat. Then he comes 
to Jackie,—a little larger animal, and in the next room 
he enters he finds an animal a bit bigger than Jackie. The 
animals he encounters as he walks from one room into 
another keep growing bigger and bigger until he comes 


[ 60 ] 








WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


to the largest of them all, Duke, a big old lion we used to 
have here at the Zoo. That was Jackie’s first appearance 
in front of a movie camera and from then on we had 
plenty of calls for him to play similar roles. We didn’t 
decide on a name for him until he worked in a picture 
with Jacqueline Logan. We took the first part of her 
name and called him Jackie.” 

It was not surprising, in fact it was rather to be ex- 
pected that Jackie should become a motion picture actor 
since Stubby his mother, so named because of her short, 
stubby body, and Mamie, his grandmother, had both been 
stars in Colonel Selig’s early wild animal troupes. Mamie 
played in the first wild animal picture ever filmed in the 
United States, The Lion’s Bride, which was Colonel Selig’s 
initial wild animal production. Jackie was merely living 
up to the family tradition! 

About the time the first few long hairs in his mane 
began to appear, soon after his second birthday, Jackie’s 
owners noticed that Zoo visitors flocked around the 
young lion and his trainer whenever they rolled and wres¬ 
tled on the lawn. Why not make something out of this 
innocent play? After all, who had ever seen a man and 


[ 62 ] 








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WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


a lion slap each other, push one another around in a cart 
and then engage in as lively a wrestling match as was 
ever staged between two human beings? No one. Here 
was something entirely new—a wrestling lion! 

This amazing part of Jackie’s act soon became known 
in the studios after people had witnessed it in the arena. 
From that day to this, whenever such action can be used 
it is written into a story. Of course it is understood that 
although Jackie works safely with people there are some 
stunts that only his trainer dares do with him, namely, 
ride on his back, jump onto his back from a height, and 
wrestle with him. If and when such action is desired, 
Melvine Koontz doubles for the actor. 

“Jackie will work with anyone,” explains his master, 
“if I am there to tell him what to do. In King of the Jungle 
during the shot of Buster Crabbe taking out the bullet 
from Jackie’s back, I was offside calling to Jackie, telling 
him what to do. When he walked into camera range, I 
told him to play dead. After Tarzan had supposedly re' 
moved the bullet, I called to him from the other side of 
the set and he walked out of the scene. Jackie and I wres' 
tied in that picture too. 


[ 65 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


“One day while we were working on the same picture 
on the Paramount lot, I let him run loose for a little while 
before I took him to lunch. In the commissary he sat up 
to a table and quietly ate the bread and milk the waitress 
brought him. He can't have his raw meat when he is din' 
ing out. After lunch, Buster and I drove him over to the 
Hollywood Athletic Club. You can imagine how he star' 
tied the members who were in the swimming pool when 
he appeared at the end of the diving board and looked 
down on them. Later that day, we went down to the 
ocean and took pictures of Jackie and Buster playing on 
the beach." 

When the film King of the Jungle was released, Jackie’s 
owners decided to send him and his trainer on a personal 
appearance tour to San Francisco, Jackie’s first long trip. 
He was put into his red cage on wheels and rolled into 
the trailer attached to his master’s sedan. Then away they 
drove up the Coast. 

Arriving in the Bay City, Jackie was driven to the 
stage door of the Golden Gate Theatre and left on the 
back stage in care of the night watchman. He was ready 
for a good night’s sleep after his four hundred mile ride. 
The next morning Mr. Koontz, took him out in back of 
[ 66 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


the theatre for a work out. At the appointed time that 
afternoon, they were ready for their vaudeville debut. 

They were enthusiastically received by their first the' 
atre audience and a San Francisco newspaper of May 4th, 
1933, paid them the following tribute: 

“The vaudeville feature at the Golden Gate Theatre 
is Jackie, the $50,000 lion. Jackie and his trainer furnish 
the best animal act I have even seen as far as enjoyment 
goes. There is none of the nerve-racking tenseness that 
accompanies the usual animal offering. Instead, Jackie and 
his trainer appear behind a six'foot flimsy wire screen and 
go to work with as much enjoyment as the average man 
with a dog. When Jackie balks on a trick, he gets cuffed 
and he cuffs right back!” 

If the driver of the taxi cab that Melvin Koontz or* 
dered one morning during their visit, turned pale and 
trembled in his shoes when a full-grown lion bounded out 
of the theatre door into his cab, he was needlessly alarmed. 
No passenger ever sat more primly on a seat than did 
Jackie while he and his master were being driven to a 
newspaper building for an appointment with news pho' 
tographers. 

Was it politeness alone that prompted the people wait' 
[ 67 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


ing for an elevator to step aside and allow the visitors sole 
use of the elevator? Or was it fear of a jungle beast that 
made them unwilling to be fellow passengers? 

Jackie may have been a little glad when the strenuous 
trip was over and he was back in the familiar surroundings 
of the Zoo, with a chance to rest up before beginning work 
on his next picture —Central Par\. Because any group of 
lions will now and then fight among themselves, Jackie has 
never had to share his quarters with other lions. He never 
appears in the arena with them nor is he allowed to work 
with them during the filming of a picture for he has such 
a fine disposition that both his owners and his trainer wish 
to do all they can to help him keep it. 

Speaking of good dispositions, Tanner is another good' 
natured lion. He is a member of Captain Foix’s group of 
trained lions that perform in the arena following Jackie’s 
act. Tanner has starred in many screen roles during his 
time but his motion picture work now consists mainly of 
doubling for Jackie. 

“Tanner is about eighteen years old,” says Mr. Koontz 
who accompanies both animals when they go on location. 
“He is a fine performer and often doubles for Jackie when 


[ 68 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


the action in the story calls for something that he can do 
better than Jackie. For instance; I can’t use Jackie in a 
scene where people are running, because he chases them. 
He thinks anyone who runs is inviting him to play. Tam 
ner won’t do that. If he is to go from one side of the set 
to the other, he starts out and never gives a look at any' 
thing until he reaches the place he is headed for. Any 
number of persons running will not distract his attention. 
He has a one track mind! 

“Something very funny happened while they were 
filming Central Par\. In one place in the story the lion is 
supposed to run wild in a night club. He upsets tables and 
chairs and people run to get out of his way. I knew I 
couldn’t use Jackie in this scene, so prepared for Tanner 
to play the role. I placed Tanner’s cage on the opposite 
side of the set from where he was going to enter so that 
he could run across, straight into his cage. 

“He entered the scene at the proper time, scrambled 
over tables and chairs and ran from the set. But he was 
so intent upon getting into his cage that he mistook the 
camera cage for his, and rushed in. It was barely large 
enough for the camera man, his assistant and the camera, 


[ 69 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


so that when Tanner bolted in, all they could possibly do 
was to sit on him until he broke through some loose 
boards and reached his own quarters. We couldn’t tell 
who was the more surprised, the men or the Hon. 

“Tanner has worked in many pictures during his eight' 
een years, and his image will no doubt be used long after 
he leaves this earth, because he is the lion that now shakes 
his head and roars on the screen at the beginning of every 
Metro-Goldwyn'Mayer technicolor picture. He is a vet' 
eran motion picture actor and one of the best workers 
we have.” 

As for Jackie, he is always in demand. His work in 
earlier pictures and in the more recent ones— I’m No Am 
gel, Hollywood Party, The Circus Clown, and Tarzan and 
His Mate —justifies the boasts his trainer makes when he 
says, 

“There never was a lion as tame and nice to work with 
as Jackie. I can do anything with him. He is like a big 
dog and I treat him as one. I don’t mean to say that I 
never have to call a halt on him. I do. On cold, brisk 
mornings when he is feeling particularly lively and I have 
him working in the arena, he sometimes tries his strength 


[ 70 ] 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


against mine. It is then I ask the boys to keep an eye on 
us because several times he has put his front legs around 
me and pulled tighter and tighter. I have yelled at him 
to stop and the sound of my angry voice has made him 
release his hold—that is, it has so far. Jackie is a mar¬ 
velous animal. There isn’t another lion like him in the 
world!” 


[ 71 ] 



CHAPTER FOUR 

ECKIE 

THE LEOPARD 

E CKIE, the leopard, lies in his cage, eyes closed, sup- 
pie body relaxed, legs outstretched, his front paws 
gracefully crossed. 

“Hey there! 1 ’ calls a distant voice. Eckie starts, 
straightens up, presses his nose against the bars, his dainty 
ears pricked to catch the sound of the familiar voice, his 
pale yellow eyes strained to catch a glimpse of the figure 
he knows and loves so well. Madame Olga is hailing 
[ 72 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


someone. Suddenly she appears around the comer of the 
row of cages and stops in front of his cage. Eckie purrs 
a welcome as he sniffs and licks the fingers that gently 
scratch his nose and stroke his soft, velvety paws. 

If you should ask Madame Olga about Eckie, wishing 
to know something of his history and of how he got into 
pictures, she would begin by telling you of Olga, Eckie’s 
mother. While Colonel Selig and his company were mat 
ing silent pictures in Jacksonville, Florida, one winter be' 
fore they moved to California, a ferocious, young leopard' 
ess arrived one day from the jungles of India. 

Since Madame Olga had chosen to specialise in the 
training of leopards, the spirited young beauty was given 
to her to break and to train. It was very evident that the 
responsibility was going to be anything but easy, for when 
anyone so much as approached her cage, the leopardess 
threw herself against the bars and by her low, throaty, 
coughdike growl, issued a warning not to come any closer. 

If the slim, nervous leopardess wished to frighten the 
little trainer who spent so much of her time standing 
quietly observing her new charge, she was disappointed. 
If, on the other hand, she herself was afraid of this strange 


[ 73 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


two-legged creature, her fears were slowly dispelled. This 
daily visitor brought fresh meat, and cool water—surely 
she could mean no harm! 

Little by little the untamed beast lost her viciousness 
as her new friend worked and coaxed to gain her con¬ 
fidence and affection. It was a long, hard struggle, with 
the leopardess more than once charging the woman as 
they faced each other in the arena. But Madame Olga 
knew from past experiences that her efforts would be re¬ 
warded. They were. Olga gradually became adjusted to 
her new surroundings. She learned to obey commands 
and could at last be trusted to work with the other leop¬ 
ards in the leopard act and in pictures. 

The move to California interrupted picture making for 
a time, but it was not long after the animals had all been 
established at the new Selig Zoo, that lions, tigers, leop¬ 
ards and pumas were again running, climbing and leap¬ 
ing for the motion picture cameras. 

Olga, who had at first been so difficult and dangerous 
to handle, now displayed an even, gentle disposition, a 
high degree of intelligence, and complete confidence in 
her trainer. In fact so deep was this confidence and trust, 


[ 74 ] 
































WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


that whenever the least little thing happened to frighten 
or confuse the leopardess, she ran to Madame Olga, and 
if she could rub against the little trainer’s legs or put a 
paw on her knee, she regained her poise and became per' 
fectly calm. 

This implicit trust was strikingly demonstrated to a 
Los Angeles dentist one day, when Madame Olga ap* 
peared in his office with Olga and asked him to look at a 
tooth which she felt sure was paining the leopardess. 

“Jump into the chair,” directed Madame Olga. The 
animal obeyed. “Now I’ll hold open her jaws while you 
work in her mouth. See,” smiled the woman as Olga 
rested her paws on her trainer’s arms and allowed the man 
to drill in the cavity and then to fill it with gold. “As long 
as I am close to her she is not afraid.” The work com' 
pleted, Olga jumped down from her chair and was led out 
to the waiting automobile, leaving an astonished, admiring 
dentist staring after her. 

A few more years of picture making and then came 
the glorious opportunity to sail away to the inviting Ha' 
waiian Islands. It was in May, 1923, that seven leopards 
in their cage were placed aboard the trim ocean liner in a 


[ 77 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


comer of the hold that would be easily accessible to their 
trainer. Every day, Madame Olga brought food and wa- 
ter to her pets and carefully watched over them. Because 
she could always depend upon Olga to be well behaved, 
she several times slipped a studded collar about Olga’s 
lovely spotted neck, and took her for a stroll upon the 
sunny deck. 

Every day for seven weeks, the “Leopard Lady” and 
her leopards gave their famous arena act in the beautiful 
Aloha Park. When they were not working, Madame 
Olga and Olga were to be found on the beach. A full' 
grown leopardess playing about was a fascinating sight so 
that whenever they sunned and romped on the sands they 
found themselves the center of attention. 

Rested and refreshed from their vacation under tropi' 
cal skies, the travelers arrived home just in time to begin 
work on their first picture of the new season. 

July, August, September, October, slipped by and 
when November came, a piece of canvas was hung over 
the front of Olga’s cage to shield her from the light and 
from curious, prying eyes. 

On November seventh, when Madame Olga lifted a 
comer of the cage covering and peeked inside, she found 


[ 78 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Olga lovingly licking first one and then the other little 
ball of breathing fur that nestled in the straw beside her. 
One baby leopard did not live to see the outside world 
and the other had to be taken from Olga when it was dis- 
covered that she did not have enough milk to nourish the 
hungry cub. 

Whenever a four-footed mother at the Zoo refuses to 
care, or for some reason is not capable of caring, for her 
babies, they are taken from her and given to Olga Celeste. 
Her practical knowledge and the loving care she gives ani¬ 
mals, fit her for the role of foster mother that she is so 
often called upon to play. 

The tiny spotted kitten with his wrinkled nose, 
squeaky mew and shaky legs, curled up contentedly in the 
warm, soft bed Madame Olga provided for him in her 
home, and opened wide his little pink mouth each time the 
teaspoonful of diluted milk was offered him. 

The naming of the baby leopard was left to his foster 
mother, who decided to call him Jack, for Jack Dempsey. 
And Jack it would have been had not the broad Swedish 
accent of a young relative of Madame Olga’s changed the 
“Jackie” to “Eckie.” 

The first six weeks of Eckie’s life were uneventful, eat- 
[ 79 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


ing and sleeping being the natural daily program for anh 
mal and human babies alike. Suddenly, out of a clear sky, 
the helpless baby leopard developed a severe case of pneu' 
monia. During the two and a half weeks that Eckie lay 
desperately ill, Madame Olga watched over him constant' 
ly. For two days and two nights, when she most feared 
for his life, she went without sleep, so that she might rub 
him again and again with camphorated oil, and turn him 
first on one side and then on the other, in an effort to ease 
his breathing. Eckie was bom a healthy little leopard so 
that with good care he soon showed signs of improve' 
ment. But his woolly flannel sweater was kept on him 
until he was entirely well again. 

Eckie’s first birthday found him weighing one hundred 
pounds and loosing his baby teeth. Baby that he was, his 
foster mother wondered whether or not she should take 
him on the Canadian tour she was planning for the leop' 
ard act. To leave him at home was really unthinkable, so 
when the Leopard Lady and her spotted cats set sail from 
Los Angeles, Eckie was, in his estimation, an important 
member of the troupe. 

Had Eckie been human, he no doubt would have be' 


[ 80 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


come excited over his first press notice which appeared in 
a San Francisco newspaper upon his arrival there. A good 
big piece of raw meat would have been more to a leopard’s 
liking than was the article which read, 

“When the S. S. Emma Alexander pulled into San 
Francisco harbor today, there was a full passenger list. 
Among the arrivals were scores of Southern Californians 
and Olga Celeste with Eckie, her pet leopard. Eckie is 
the property of Madame Olga, an animal trainer who ar¬ 
rived at this port on the Alexander, en route to Victoria, 
B. C. Eckie became the pet of two hundred passengers 
for his behavior was exemplary. 

“Eckie is one of a troupe of a dozen leopards bound 
for a Canadian tour. Soon after the steamer left the south¬ 
ern port, his leopardship was taken for a walk on the deck 
by his owner. The utter friendliness of the beast en¬ 
deared him to the passenger list and his day was one of 
caresses without limit. Eckie is a year old and was raised 
by Madame Olga from the time he was a week old.” 

At every stop on their tour, Madame Olga and the 
leopards were enthusiastically received. While Eckie 
could not claim a share in the honors heaped upon the per- 


[ 81 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


formers of the leopard act, he was perfectly content to be 
his mistress’ constant companion. He did, however, make 
a great hit with newspaper reporters who had never be¬ 
fore petted and played with a live leopard. 

“I am sure Eckie likes you,” Madame Olga told one 
writer during an interview in her dressing room in Port¬ 
land, Oregon. “When anyone comes near him and he 
lays back his ears, look out—for then I know he does not 
like them. He only lets them alone. But my older leop¬ 
ards would attack. They immediately sense an enemy 
among people and form likes and dislikes very readily. A 
lion or a tiger will sulk and only attack when one’s back is 
turned or when cornered. A leopard will fight at all times 
and charges as one faces them. They will often attack 
animals larger than themselves. They hate each other and 
are ever ready for a fight. I am a perpetual referee. After 
maturity, they always attack with claws extended and 
often tear each other’s pads. Eckie has never been teased 
or harshly treated and he knows only play. He has no 
fear of human beings.” 

Eckie came home from the extended trip, an older and 
a wiser little leopard, but he was still too young to know 


[ 82 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


the meaning of buggy whip, arena, camera, or pedestal. 
So he was again left at Madame Olga's home to romp in 
the back yard with an Airedale puppy for a playmate. 

The two animals had great fun chasing each other and 
playing together, but the real treat for them was to be 
taken over to the Zoo where the boys tussled with them 
and let them chase a football across the broad lawns. "Sic 
’em, Eckie,” a player would say, pointing to another play' 
er, and Eckie the rascal, would be off in a flash to neatly 
trip the runner with one of his paws! 

Another outing that Eckie always enjoyed was ac' 
companying Madame Olga when she dined out. With 
the leash fastened onto his collar, he was led into a res' 
taurant as one would lead a dog. Each new waitress doubt' 
fully and timidly eyed the jungle cat when he jumped up 
onto a chair and sat waiting for his meal to be served. But 
her fear always turned to affectionate admiration as the 
gentle welbbehaved Eckie sat quietly eating his milk and 
eggs. 

These were happy, carefree days for Eckie. He was 
allowed the run of Madame Olga’s house and yard and 
was a welcome visitor whenever he felt inclined to call 


[ 83 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


upon the neighbors. That is, he was welcome until some- 
thing happened which noticeably dampened their enthusi- 
asm for his company. 

Madame Olga had been invited to dinner at the home 
of friends who lived just two doors away, and had hur¬ 
riedly left without hooking the back door screen. Eckie, 
the uninvited, became lonesome, discovered the open door 
and slipped out. He tracked his mistress to the neighbor’s 
home and when his repeated scratchings at the door failed 
to bring a response, he climbed a fig tree outside the din¬ 
ing room window which was at the front of the house. 
From his high perch on a strong limb, he could look down 
into the room and observe all that went on. How to at¬ 
tract their attention was another problem. 

Along came a young man to call for the young lady 
of the house. Being a bit late, he cut across the lawn and 
passed directly under the bough on which the watchful 
Eckie crouched. A leap, a shriek, and out rushed the din¬ 
ers to find the caller stretched out on the lawn in a faint. 
There was not a scratch on his body, but the shock of feel¬ 
ing a wild animal on his back had caused him to faint from 
sheer fright. Right then and there Madame Olga decided 


[ 84 ] 























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WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


it was high time Eckie moved to the Zoo where she could 
keep her eye on him. 

With young animals as with children, the first few 
years of their lives are very important ones in their physh 
cal and mental development. They must have plenty of 
fresh air, nourishing food, and healthful exercise. Then 
when they have reached the required age—with leopards 
it is from five to six years—they are ready to be intro' 
duced to the work they are capable of doing. 

Eckie’s training at the hands of his foster mother be' 
gan when he was five years old. He must learn to shift 
from his cage to the arena and back again; to mount a 
pedestal and sit there until given the command to jump 
down; to take every cue given him in the arena act and 
to master special tricks that suited his abilities. 

One of Eckie’s feats in the leopard act as it is given 
today, is to jump up onto a pedestal eight feet high and 
leap across a space ten feet wide to another pedestal of 
the same height. Eckie and Midnight, a beautiful, rare, 
black leopard are the leapers of the act. New stunts are 
learned to replace those that have been used for a number 
of seasons, so that the animals are in constant training. 


[ 87 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


For a long time a feature was included in the act which 
never before had been attempted by a leopard trainer any- 
where. In it, when Madame Olga called them to a table 
in the center of the arena, Eckie shared the spotlight with 
Princess, Boso, Sugar and Lovey. After each cat had 
taken his seat, their trainer produced a plate of raw meat 
and with her bare fingertips took a strip of meat at a time 
and fed each animal in turn. It was a hazardous feat, for 
if two of the leopards had fallen to fighting over the same 
piece, the lives of all would have been endangered. 

“We must eliminate all fear and nervousness in the 
arena, 11 says Madame Olga. “Close study and love for the 
animals helps us in this but the ability to command them 
is largely a gift. They instinctively respect people. I love 
the animals, those who are good because they try to please 
and those who are bad because they have so much spirit. 
And I guess after all, that is the real secret of my influence 
over them. 11 

Under Madame Olga’s careful, understanding guid¬ 
ance, Eckie was introduced to the motion picture camera. 
One of his first screen appearances was with Sid Chaplin 
in The Missing Lin\, where he made several daring leaps. 


[ 88 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 

Eckie worked with Jacqueline Logan in The Leopard 
Lady and again in the spectacular film, King of Kings, in 
which Miss Logan played the part of Mary Magdalene. 
The setting for the opening scene was the beautiful gar¬ 
dens of Mary Magdalene’s palace, with Madame Olga, 
dressed as a slave girl, leading Eckie, her mistress’ pet 
leopard, down a flight of marble stairs. Everything was 
going nicely as the two descended the steps but as they 
neared the bottom, a swan in the pool ahead sighted the 
leopard and flapped his wings in alarm. Eckie responded 
with a lunge towards the swan and pulled so hard on the 
leash that the strain of holding him back broke off both 
heels of Madame Olga’s shoes. 

The courts of the Roman emperors were as splendid 
and as costly as their owners’ imaginations could make 
them. Anything new, and therefore expensive, anything 
rare, and therefore costing a great deal of gold, was 
brought to grace the palace of the emperor. Some of the 
wild animals known today were very familiar to the peo¬ 
ple of Nero’s time. A leopard was not uncommon, but 
still rare enough to be selected by Poppea, Nero’s wife, 
for a pet. In the motion picture Sign of the Cross, Poppea, 


[ 89 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


played by Claudette Colbert, had Eckie for her pet 
leopard and expected nothing more of him than to allow 
himself to be led about in a jeweled harness, and lie on 
an enormous velvet pillow, adding his bit to the beauty 
and elegance of Nero’s court. 

As any actor who does his work well is apt to be called 
for a similar part, Eckie was again cast as member of a 
royal household, the favorite of Cleopatra, in the picture 
named for the Queen of the Nile. Mr. Cecil B. de Mille 
directed this film and as far as Eckie was concerned, was 
the most attractive person on the lot. Mr. de Mille and 
Olga, Eckie’s mother, had worked together in many pic¬ 
tures and had been the best of friends. 

So it was quite natural for Mr. de Mille to transfer 
his affection’s to Olga’s son and for Eckie to recognize an 
old friend of the family who is an animal lover. During 
the periods when actual shooting was not going on, Eckie 
strained at his leash, begging Madame Olga to allow him 
to visit Mr. de Mille. Sometimes the famous director had 
difficulty keeping his footing, so hard did Eckie rub against 
his legs wanting attention and showing his affection for 
the man. 


[ 90 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


“Working animals in pictures is harder than working 
them in any exhibition or circus,” explains Madame Olga 
who has more experience than most trainers in the pic¬ 
ture business. “The reason is that the animals must really 
act for the films, not just go through mechanical stunts 
rehearsed many times before. Many of our animals are 
excellent actors. Talent varies with,them as with human 
actors. As a rule, I think wild animals have more ability 
than domestic animals. They get your idea more quickly, 
and if they wish, are more clever in working it out. 

“Leopards are usually good actors. They are willing 
to use their originality and frequently invent bits of stage 
business. For instance, in the comedy The Boarding House 
Ham , the players rushed madly from the room when the 
leopards appeared and one of the men accidentally 
dropped a roll of bills. To the surprise of us all, Olga 
picked up the money and gave it to one of the players. 

“Olga lived to be thirty years old and I have hopes 
that Eckie will also reach a good old age. I have many 
nice pictures to remember Olga by, but Eckie’s beauty 
has been preserved in something even more lasting. Last 
spring, Mr. Wheeler Williams, the well known sculptor. 


[ 91 ] 



ECKIE POSES FOR MR. WHEELER WILLIAMS 


modeled a life-size statue of Eckie in bronze and gold, for 
the Museum of Natural History in New York City. I 
was given a small model of the figure and it will always 
occupy a prominent place in my home. It was a lovely 
honor,” and Eckie’s proud foster mother strokes him ah 
fectionately, “but I prefer the live Eckie and shall keep 
him as long as I can. We’ve been through a lot together, 
Eckie and I!” 


[ 92 ] 






CHAPTER FIVE 

GERTIE 
THE JAGUAR 

I F the small, black and orange sign which reads, 
JAGUAR —SOUTH AMERICA, were taken 
down from the bars of Gertie’s cage, most Zoo 
visitors would remark when they pause to look at her, 
"Leopards are beautiful creatures, aren’t they?” 

In circuses, leopards and jaguars are called "fool ’em 
cats,” because circus goers invariably confuse the two. It 
is little wonder, for at a glance they do look very much 
[ 93 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


alike. The public is more familiar with leopards because 
they are more frequently pictured by artists and pho¬ 
tographers, more has been written about them and they 
are more often on exhibition. Therefore every spotted 
animal in a zoo or circus is a “leopard” and few know a 
jaguar when they see one. 

They are however, easily distinguished when observed 
at close range. Gertie, the jaguar, is bigger than Eckie, 
the leopard. Her body is heavier, her head wider and 
rounder, and her legs shorter and stockier. Her tail is 
thicker, not as long, and does not taper off toward the 
end as Eckie’s does. The most interesting variance is their 
markings. Both animals have tawny, spotted coats but 
Eckie s black spots are solid rosettes, while Gertie’s are 
inclined to be angular and broken, each ring enclosing 
several dark spots. 

It seems strange that two wild beasts that inhabit such 
widely separated parts of the globe should be so much 
alike in appearance and have similar habits. Leopards be¬ 
long to the Old World, living in Africa, Asia and some 
portions of China and Japan. Jaguars are natives of South 
America where they are most plentiful, Central America 
and Mexico. 


[ 94 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Both animals are remarkably agile and are alert, cun' 
ning and dangerous, attacking their victims in much the 
same fashion. The jaguar is the most versatile of all the 
cat animals, for he preys upon deer, cattle, horses and 
dogs, climbs trees and eats monkeys and birds. Because he 
is a swimmer and fond of water, rivers are additional hunt' 
ing grounds for him where he catches fish, turtles and 
alligators. 

A cab driver was called upon one night by Madame 
Olga Celeste to drive her and her jaguar pet to KFI Radio 
Station in Los Angeles. He was much too eager to be 
rid of his wild animal passenger to be at all interested in 
whether the beast was an Indian leopard or a South Amen 
ican jaguar. His consternation was mild however, com' 
pared to that of the trembling musicians who hastily laid 
aside their instruments and excused themselves when 
Gertie appeared in the broadcasting room. 

“But they had nothing to fear,” laughs Madame Olga 
in telling about the incident. “Gertie is a lovely animal 
and pays no attention to people. She works in closeups 
in front of the camera and many stars have posed with 
her because we can safely use her in making publicity 
stills. We were at KFI to bring our greetings to Mr. Frank 


[ 95 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Buck who was the guest speaker on the program. His 
jungle picture, Bring ’Em Bac\ Alive, had just been re' 
leased and we had come to wish him success with it. I 
said a few words, and then when we put Gertie on a stool 
so that her head was close to the microphone, she made 
her little speech. Yes, she really did speak, that is, in her 
own jungle language! To get her to talk, I stroked her 
head and whispered to her and her answers to me sounded 
to the people who were listening in as though she was 
speaking to them!” 

While Gertie does enjoy the distinction among the 
other animals at the Zoo of having broadcast over the 
radio, she has not had as much motion picture experience 
as her neighbors have. Most jungle pictures call for ani' 
mals that are natives of Africa, but whenever a story with 
a South American background is to be filmed and a jaguar 
is needed, Gertie, a willing dependable actress, is ready 
for the role. 


[ 96 ] 



























CHAPTER SIX 

JALMERS AND JOCKAMO 
SOUTH AMERICAN PUMAS 

I T takes a vicious, strong cat to kill a bull,” said Mr. 
William Foix, wild animal trainer, when he read the 
following newspaper item: 

MOUNTAIN LION KILLS FINE BULL: Newhall, 
California.—The menace of the mountain Hon has not 
been altogether eradicated in this section. It is reported 
today from the Charles Tunstall ranch in Pelona Valley 
that a lion got into the cow lot and killed one of Tun- 
stall’s finest pedigreed bulls. 

[ 99 ] 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


The last lion that made a raid in this section picked 
a fight with a ranch bulldog. The latter was killed with a 
blow of the lion’s paw before he fled back into the mourn 
tains. 

“Such reports are not uncommon in this region,” Mr. 
Foix continued. “The mountain lion, or puma, as we 
trainers call him, is the most fierce, destructive enemy the 
ranchers have. 

“Jaguars and pumas are the two great felines of the 
American continent. Here at the California Zoological 
Gardens, we have only the one jaguar, Gertie, but we 
own ten pumas. Lions, tigers and leopards come from the 
Old World across the water, but both jaguars and pumas 
are natives of the New World, the Americas. 

“The early explorers of the Atlantic Coast thought 
the puma with his smooth, reddish coat and great strength 
was a lion, and that is what they called him. The early 
settlers gave him the name ‘panther,’ but still the name 
‘lion’ survived and was carried out to the Pacific Coast 
and throughout the states along the Canadian boundary. 

“It is in the Rocky Mountain and Coastal states that 
these great cats live in such numbers today, and are conn 


[ 100 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


monly known as mountain lions because they live in the 
mountains and hills. I have heard that they are almost 
extinct in the eastern part of the United States. In South 
America, they are called ‘pumas,’ a name given them by 
the Peruvians. ‘Cougar’ is another name, of French 
origin, used to refer to these lion-like creatures. But 
whether we call them cougars, panthers, mountain lions 
or pumas, they are still the same animals that range over 
the largest territory of any wild cat. They may be found 
in the less civilized regions from Canada, south into Mex¬ 
ico, Central America, and down into the most southern 
portion of South America.” 

The trainer stepped over the guard rail and up to the 
puma’s cage. ‘‘As far as I have been able to observe, the 
puma is the only wild animal of the feline family that 
purrs like a house cat. Perhaps I can get Jalmers to purr 
now. Hello, Jalmers old boy,” he said. “How would you 
lik e to have your head scratched?” 

In answer, the slender cat pressed his nose between 
the bars. Then as the familiar fingers scratched on first 
one side and then on the other side of Jalmers small, 
shapely head, a low, steady rumble was distinctly audible 


[ 101 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


—exactly like the soft purring of a contented tabby on a 
warm hearth mg. 

Few persons can experience such a demonstration by 
a captive puma, but stories are told of travelers who have 
heard the purring of a contented wild puma. An official 
of British Guiana tells such a tale. 

While on a trip up one of the big rivers in his steam 
launch, he stopped to take aboard an elderly miner who 
asked for passage to a certain gold mine. The stranger 
took his meals on the boat but slung his bed at night be- 
tween two trees on shore as did the crew so that the cap¬ 
tain could have the cabin. One morning there was a good 
deal of laughing and talking when the crew brought 
aboard the miner’s hammock. 

“What is the joke?” asked the captain. 

“Tiger sleep with old man last night,” said one of the 
Indians pointing to a hollow in a mound of leaves between 
two trees. There was little doubt that a puma had been 
lying under the hammock. The owner of the boat turned 
to the miner. 

“Didn’t you hear something in the night?” he asked. 

“No,” replied the old man shaking his white head. 
“Only the low croaking of frogs awakened me.” 


[ 102 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


This sound imagined by the sleeping man was with' 
out doubt, the soft purring of the friendly puma enjoying 
the companionship of a sleeping man. 

In different sections of North and South America, the 
puma is regarded with varying respect. The Gauchos and 
Indians of the southern plains and the Central American 
forests are firm in the belief handed down to them from 
the days of the first Spanish conquests, that he is the only 
wild cat friendly to man. In fact, the name given him by 
the Spaniards of old was “amigo del Cristiano,” meaning 
“the Christian’s friend.” 

The first settlers in the eastern part of the United 
States held no such friendly feelings for this “lion,” as they 
called him. To them he was a dangerous and ferocious 
enemy and they told terrifying tales of his stealth and 
cruelty as he would lie hidden on a branch and then spring 
swiftly down upon some passing traveler. 

Today, in western United States he is still an enemy 
to man. Experience has taught the ranchers of this sec' 
tion of the country that the mountain lion, or puma, is 
fierce and destructive. He preys not only upon deer and 
other wild game, but he is especially fond of young colts, 
cattle and sheep. Not content with stealing into a flock 


[ 103 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


of sheep and killing just one, he kills right and left and is 
known to have destroyed as many as one hundred sheep 
in a single night’s raid on a sheep fold. 

Jalmers and Jockamo, captive pumas, do not have to 
forage for their food as do their wild relatives who roam 
the hills and mountains about Los Angeles. Fresh meat 
and water are brought daily to their respective cages and 
every effort is made to keep them healthy and contented. 

Of the two, Jalmers is by far the more noted motion 
picture performer. Like Jackie the lion, and Colonel the 
tiger, Jalmers’ parents were screen stars long before he 
came into the world. Boy, his father, and Babe, his moth' 
er, were veteran performers for many years in Colonel 
Selig’s screen attractions. It was natural then for at least 
one of the cubs bom to such gifted parents, to carry on 
the family talents. 

A strange fact relating to puma family life is that 
mother pumas frequently kill their babies in moments of 
fright when they think a human is going to harm them. 
For this and other reasons, it is sometimes necessary to 
take the babies away from their mother. At such times 
Madame Olga plays the role of foster mother. 


[ 104 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


When the baby Jalmers, his brother Buddy and his 
sister Betty, were given to her to care for, she took them 
to her home. There she arranged a soft bed for them 
and every two and a half hours fed them an ounce and a 
half of milk from an ordinary nursing bottle. 

The three little pumas grew and thrived. The black 
spots on their coats and the black rings on their tails. 
Nature’s protection for them in their natural environ- 
ment, gradually faded away. Soon they were old enough 
to begin the lessons that lay ahead of them. 

Pumas mature more rapidly than lions, tigers and 
leopards. They are full grown when they are about two 
and a half years old. That is why they must be broken 
and trained at an earlier age than other cat animals. 

According to Madame Olga, who worked many hours 
with him, Jalmers was an apt pupil from the very begin¬ 
ning. His dependable disposition which is remarkable, 
for pumas are notoriously high strung and skittish, en¬ 
deared him to everyone. He gained his first screen laurels 
as a comedian in a hilarious comedy called Tell It To The 
Judge. Throughout the picture he popped up in all sorts 
of surprising places. A particularly funny scene was laid 


[ 105 ] 








WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


in a Pullman car with Jalmers poking his head between 
two curtains and licking the smooth, bald head of a sleep- 
ing passenger. 

Jockamo is an actress in her own right although she 
isn’t regarded as a very dependable one. Her chief claim 
for mention in a book about motion picture wild animals 
is based on the fact that she is the mother of two young 
pumas that appear in pictures. Her babies, born in March, 
1934, were scarcely two months old when they made their 
first appearance before a camera in a film called Young 
Eagles. This was a story in serial form of two American 
Boy Scouts traveling in South America. The boys find 
one of the babies caught between two branches of a fallen 
tree and while they are trying to release it, the mother 
puma appears, thinks the boys are harming her baby, and 
so springs at them. Of course they escape her attack. 

The two captive pumas, Jalmers and Jockamo, know 
nothing of the wild carefree lives their untamed brothers 
lead. They will never meet death from a blazing gun in 
the hands of a revengeful rancher. They will continue to 
enjoy their safe, pleasant home at the California Zoolog¬ 
ical Gardens, among persons who treat them kindly. 


[ 106 ] 



































CHAPTER SEVEN 

JIGGS 

THE CHIMPANZEE 

H IGH above the heads of swimming hippos, slink¬ 
ing tigers and stealthy lions, the chimpanzees 
swing through the trees of African forests in 
search of food and fun. They travel in families, or groups 
of families, chattering, shrieking, howling, as they fling 
themselves from tree to tree seeking the fruits on which 
they live. 

Next to the gorilla, the chimpanzee is the largest of 


[ 109 ] 








WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


the manlike apes. He is usually about four feet tall. That 
is, he would be if he stood up straight. But he hunches 
over like a little old man, for he uses his long arms and 
hands for support when he is hurrying along the ground. 
He is heavily built, with powerful chest and arms, de- 
veloped by his constant swinging from branch to branch. 

Jiggs is as sturdy a little chimpanzee as ever swung 
through the jungle. He was one year old when he was 
captured in the Belgian Congo, and was so small he had 
to be fed from a bottle. He grew steadily in size, but un- 
fortunately his kindergarten days were spent with a man 
who did not understand or care for animals and who could 
not see in Jiggs the clever, intelligent chimpanzee he was 
capable of being. He thought him dull and stupid. He 
did not try to teach him anything and Jiggs sat in his cage 
neglected, howling his protest at being unappreciated. 
Each prolonged howl brought a ducking in a bucket of 
water. Altogether, those were unhappy days. 

Today, Jiggs lives with Mr. and Mrs. Gentry, his own- 
ers, in a home where he is treated with all kindness and 
respect. Surely memories of those sad days can have no 
place in his recollections. 


[ 110 } 



JIGGS RESTS ON A BENCH 

The Gentry home is a low rambling house with a 
yard which is Jiggs’ particular province. At one end is 
another house, a small one, but Jiggs’ own. It is built of 
strong, durable materials and has a living room with a fire 
place, and a bedroom with a built-in bunk. In the closet 
in his bedroom hang the clothes that he sometimes puts 
on for special occasions. He usually wears only the black, 
shaggy suit Mother Nature gave him. But if he is to do 
some impersonations or his owners want him to look fmv 
[ill] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


ny, he selects some suitable clothes from his welhstocked 
wardrobe. 

Here in his own quarters, Jiggs lives a happy existence. 
Not that he spends much of his time indoors. After all, 
he is an animal and the happiest when he is out-of-doors. 
It is only at night that he is willing and glad to go indoors 
to his bed. In fact he doesn’t wait until dark, but retires 
at four-thirty in the afternoon and sleeps until morning 
when he hears someone astir in the big house. 

Many of Jiggs’ days are spent at some studio or away 
on location. But when he is at home there are tricks to 
be practiced and new ones to be learned. Mr. Gentry 
spends long hours teaching Jiggs to do certain things when 
he tells him to do them. It has taken much patience on 
the part of both of them for Jiggs to learn what his trainer 
means when he says, “Walk like a little old man,” and 
Jiggs clasps his hands behind his back and paces up and 
down; or when Mr. Gentry says, “Turn a flip,” and Jiggs 
turns a neat handspring. 

Some of his tricks other chimpanzees have learned too, 
but there is one that Jiggs alone can do—jump from a fly¬ 
ing trapeze. Mrs. Gentry’s sister, a trapeze artist known 


[ 112 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


as Rosalie, performs this trick with Jiggs by hanging by 
her knees high in the air on a large trapeze and holding a 
small one. She swings slowly back and forth while Jiggs 
stands on a platform twenty feet away and waits for just 
the right second when he can leap and catch the little 
trapeze Rosalie holds. It takes great skill for men and 
women trapeze experts to execute this trick so that it is 
a great accomplishment for a chimpanzee too. Jiggs even 
goes his human companions one better, for he can hang 
by his toes on the swinging trapeze. 

Another unusual trick and one that Jiggs likes to per' 
form is the slant wire slide. For this, a wire is stretched 
from the balcony in a theatre down to the stage. At the 
top, Jiggs carefully gets his balance so that when the sig- 
nal is given him, he can glide swiftly down the wire high 
over the heads in the audience, to a perfect landing on the 
stage. Mrs. Gentry, thinking he would look comical wear¬ 
ing a little tarlatan skirt while doing this trick, made him 
one. The stiff, pink skirt did look very funny, but when 
it tickled Jiggs’ sides so that it made him chuckle, she de¬ 
cided it might be the means of his losing his balance, and 
so gave up the idea. 


[ 113 ] 







JIGGS STREAKED UP THE POLE 


Mr. Gentry tells of an amusing experience he had with 
Jiggs one day while they were practicing their pole trick 
in the back yard. Mr. Gentry holds the twenty-five'foot 
pole and has Jiggs climb up and stand on his head on the 
cross beam at the top. Jiggs streaked up the pole when 
commanded, but just as he rested the top of his head on 
the beam, he happened to look down and saw himself 
mirrored in the fish pond close to where his trainer stood. 
It was either his reflection that startled him or the thought 


[ 114 ] 






JIGGS PAUSED HALF-WAY DOWN THE POLE 

that he might fall into the water. He scrambled down 
the pole as fast as he could slide, forgetting all about the 
other half of the trick, which was to pause about ten feet 
down, keep his head close to the pole, and stretch out his 
body at right angles to the pole. 

There is no special routine to the tricks Jiggs has been 
taught to perform. He has learned to associate certain 
sounds, that is words, with what he is supposed to do, and 
does the tricks in whatever order they are given him. No 

[m3 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


commands are needed however, when his tricycle, bicycle 
or scooter are brought out for him. He is very fond of 
these toys and whirls around the garden path to his own 
pleasure and to the grief of anyone who gets in his way! 

Much as he enjoys his bicycle, his greatest pleasure 
comes in riding in the family car. When he thinks there 
is the slightest chance that a drive is in the offing, he sets 
up a great clamor until he is seated in the back seat all by 
himself. Jiggs never wears a collar or restraining chain, 
but sits calmly, waving his hand at anyone who will wave 
to him. 

Fortunately for Jiggs, there are many opportunities 
for him to ride. There are calls from studios that often 
mean long trips to the location where the picture is being 
filmed. There are engagements too, such as the one not 
long ago when he appeared on the assembly program of a 
Junior High School near his home. The most famous mo- 
tion picture star could not have made a greater impres¬ 
sion. Jiggs’ fan mail for the next few weeks was impres¬ 
sive, for every boy in the school wrote him a letter. Rob¬ 
ert Schelb in the 9th grade wrote the following tribute 
to Jiggs’ performance. 


[ 116 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


“When I saw Jiggs the chimpanzee on our Starr 
League program last Friday, March 16th, I at once rec' 
ognized him from the movies. I have seen him in Tarzan 
and in Dirty Wor Mr. Gentry, the owner of Jiggs, can 
handle him very well. He is a welhtrained chimpanzee 
and every one of the boys I talked to liked him. When 
he was performing, a hush fell over the auditorium so that 
you could have heard a pin drop; and when his act was 
over the applause was so loud you couldn’t have heard a 
cannon go off. Jiggs could walk on his hands and turn a 
back flip better than lots of boys in Mr. John’s tumbling 
class here at school. 

“I am very glad that Mr. Gentry promised to bring 
Jiggs back to Thomas Starr King with his trapeze and let 
him perform a little longer for perhaps the whole school 
instead of just the boys. Mr. Gentry is a lucky man to 
own a chimpanzee for I know that I would like to have 
one as a pet myself. I am now closing with the hopes that 
Mr. Gentry brings Jiggs back again.” 

And Mr. Gentry did bring Jiggs back again, this time 
for a father and son banquet. The fathers did not write 
any letters to Jiggs, but from the applause after his per' 


[ 117 ] 









WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


formance, they enjoyed it every bit as much as their sons 
did. And Jiggs himself? He loved it! He always has a 
fine time performing his tricks and ordinarily behaves 
himself like the well-mannered little chimpanzee he is 
being taught to be. 

Of course there are regrettable times when he does 
not behave, when temptation in the form of a jam jar for 
instance, gets in his way. One morning he was in the big 
house playing around while Mrs. Gentry was preparing 
his breakfast. His own breakfast consists of bread and 
milk, his luncheon fruit, whatever is in season, and his sup¬ 
per raw vegetables. Jam, such as Jiggs saw on the dining 
room table, a large jar of it, has no place in his menu. But 
he likes it and wanted some. Suddenly, although he knew 
the jam was not for him, his desire became uncontrollable. 
Making one flying leap across the table, he gathered up 
the jar under his arm, and was out the front door, run¬ 
ning down the street with it hugged close to him in the 
curve of his arm like a football. With his free hand he 
dipped up the jam and transferred it to his mouth as fast 
as he could. But it ran out of the tilted jar faster than he 
could catch it, and dripped stickily all over him. 


[ 118 } 










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WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Of course Mrs. Gentry was after him in a few sec¬ 
onds, but by the time she caught him several houses down 
the street, huddled in a basement doorway feverishly eat' 
ing jam, the damage was done. It was a sorry little monkey 
that was taken home to be punished. It was almost pun' 
ishment enough for Jiggs to endure the discomforture of 
getting the sticky mass out of his long hair. Perhaps he 
remembers the sad day when he tried to make a touch' 
down with a jam jar. To be on the safe side now, the 
Gentrys never leave a jam jar where it can tempt him. 

Another extraordinary occasion, the opening of a 
Tarzan picture in Ventura, California, found Jiggs in 
trouble again. There had been interviews with newspaper 
reporters, for Jiggs had played a very prominent part, 
there had been speeches in his own mysterious language 
over the radio, there had been all sorts of forbidden things 
to eat. In fact, Jiggs was doing just about as he pleased 
that day, for rather than reprove him before his admirers, 
Mr. and Mrs. Gentry withheld the restraining hand. 

Before the evening performance at the theatre at 
which Jiggs was to make his personal appearance, a ban' 
quet was in progress at a large hotel. Many dignitaries and 


D21] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


city officials were seated at long tables with Jiggs in all his 
glory as one of the honored guests. He sat between his 
owners. By the time the main course was served, Jiggs 
seemed to be trying to think up things he shouldn’t do 
just to see how far he would be allowed to go. He wanted 
something of everything his human fellow diners were 
eating, paying absolutely no attention to his own bowl of 
bread and milk. 

At home, he sits at his own table and eats his bread 
and milk with a spoon as nicely as you please, even paus' 
ing at the suggestion of Mr. Gentry, to daintily wipe off 
his mouth and chin with a napkin. But now he reached 
rudely for food not meant for him, until, his patience tried 
to the breaking point, Mr. Gentry took him back to the 
theatre and put him in their dressing room. The door was 
closed and a watchman stationed outside, his chair tilted 
back against the door. Mr. Gentry returned to the hotel. 

It took Jiggs but a few minutes to make up his mind 
what he was going to do about his plight, and but a few 
minutes more to open the door, knock the chair out from 
under the astonished watchman and scamper down the 
stairway. A picture was being shown on the screen, but 


[ 122 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


all eyes were turned in astonishment on Jiggs as he dashed 
up the aisle from the front of the theatre making for the 
door, with the watchman in pursuit. 

There were only a few blocks to the hotel. Jiggs re' 
membered where it was and was bound for it as fast as 
he could go. The amazement of the theatre audience was 
nothing compared to the wonderment of people on the 
streets of the town to see a chimpanzee fleeing down the 
main avenue as though all the beasts in the jungle were 
after him. 

About half a block from the hotel, a sense of how 
naughty he had been and visions of the spanking in store 
must have overtaken him, for of all unexpected things to 
do, he suddenly sat down in the middle of the sidewalk 
and began to cry! The worried, panting watchman caught 
up with him and was surprised to have Jiggs tearfully 
beg to be picked up and carried. He was like a tired little 
boy who had had too much excitement for one day. 
Knowing nothing else to do with the whimpering little 
chimpanzee, the man carried him on to the hotel. 

Installed once more in his chair between Mr. and Mrs. 
Gentry, Jiggs became the picture of good behavior. He 


[ 123 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


meekly ate his bread and milk, his head downcast and 
although one could see his eyes look longingly sideways 
at what others were eating, not another false move did 
he make. 

It was this memorable occasion that ushered in Jiggs’ 
first personal appearance in connection with a film in 
which he had played. He had appeared in other Tartan 
pictures; a comedy with the Two Black Grows in which 
he had great fun hurling cocoanuts down on the men 
below; with Laurel and Hardy in Dirty Wor in a Char¬ 
ley Chase comedy; and with the beloved Our Gang in one 
of their pictures. He played roles in the more recent 
Zoo in Budapest, The Fire Chief, Tarzan and His Mate and 
in King of the Jungle. 

He enjoys his work before the camera and veteran 
actor that he now is, he knows what is meant when the 
director says “Cut. 1 ’ It means, “Stop the cameras, the 
scene is over.” When Jiggs hears this familiar call he 
swings down from the jungle set trees to rest and play 
about until the next scene. 

Jiggs played in more scenes than any of the other ani¬ 
mals used in Tarzan and His Mate . A number of his tricks 


[ 124 ] 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


were worked into the story. Everyone who saw the pic- 
ture remembers one—when he crawled along the ground 
on his stomach, keeping well hidden by the tall grass so 
that Mary, the rhinoceros, who was supposed to be chas- 
ing him could not see him. It was Jiggs who climbed 
down from the tree where the apes had taken the wound¬ 
ed Tarzan and picked the wild plant filled with white heal¬ 
ing milk for Tarzan’s head. Jiggs was the leader of the 
band of monkeys, Tarzan’s friends. He had a prominent 
part, he played it well, and endeared himself to Johnny 
Weissmuller and to Maureen O’Sullivan who shared 
many scenes with him. 

Sometimes it is difficult to think of Jiggs as an animal, 
so adept has he become at performing the ordinary ac¬ 
complishments of man. At home, when he comes into 
the big house, he often goes to the radio, turns it on, twists 
the dial until he finds something to his liking, and then 
sits and listens attentively. He doesn’t listen for more than 
a few seconds at a time, but is off to some other pastime— 
perhaps pounding on the piano as hard as he can pound. 
Even he seems to prefer the radio music to the terrible 
din he makes. He likes too, to play with the typewriter, 


[ 125 } 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


hitting the keys squarely, but puzzled as to what is wrong 
when he hits the spacer key and no little black marks 
appear on the paper! 

He is the delight of the people in studio offices when 
he comes in and amuses them with his clever antics. He 
does one thing of his own accord that never fails to send 
them off into gales of laughter. Upon entering any wait' 
ing room where magazines are lying about, he invariably 
picks up one, seats himself with knees crossed, and thumbs 
through it looking at the pictures. He is a nuisance in the 
opinion of the telephone operators at the studio however, 
for he takes mischievous pleasure in picking up the re' 
ceiver, holding it to his ear and listening to them vainly 
asking what number he is calling! This little trick of Jiggs 
always brings an operator flying to the telephone expect' 
ing to find that some one has left the receiver off the hook. 
Instead, she finds a delighted little chimpanzee having the 
time of his life. 

Because he is altogether an obedient worker, an amus' 
ing companion, and a lovable little fellow, it is no wonder 
that Mr. and Mrs. Gentry regard him as a member of the 
family. They frequently invite him to eat at the table 


[ 126 ] 








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m 

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WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


with them and try very hard to restrain their amusement 
when he spills something on the tablecloth and then quick' 
ly covers the spot with his hand until he can slyly lower 
his head and lick it up when they are not looking at him. 

Jiggs is the center of their family festivities when, on 
Christmas Eve his Christmas tree is lighted for him. He 
jumps about in his glee and is as excited as any child 
could be. And on Easter morning it is difficult to tell who 
is having the more fun—Mrs. Gentry, hunting for the 
Easter eggs hidden for her, or Jiggs scurrying about look' 
ing for the oranges tucked away here and there for him. 
At work, or at play, the Gentrys and Jiggs have a good 
time all of the time. 


[ 129 ] 





CHAPTER EIGHT 

MARY 

THE RHINOCEROS 

O N the lot of any motion picture studio the im- 
portance of an actress may be judged by the urn 
usualness and the size of the room which is pro¬ 
vided for her dressing room. Some of the larger studios 
are most generous in setting aside small bungalows, com¬ 
plete miniature homes, beautifully decorated where even 
the most temperamental actress is satisfied to rest, to have 
luncheon served, and to dress for whatever scene may be 


[ 130 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


on the call-board for that day. One must be very impor- 
tant to have a bungalow dressing room. 

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios boast of many 
prominent actresses, but if their importance be decided on 
the basis of the unusualness of their studio home, then 
Mary, the nine-year-old rhinoceros, is the biggest star of 
them all. 

On Lot Number Two is the trim grey bungalow with 
fenced-in patio, or small yard, which is Mary's home. The 
furnishings of the main room which is a living room by 
day and a bedroom by night, are very simple. On the 
freshly-scoured floor in one comer, a fresh pile of alfalfa 
hay is arranged each evening for her. This is the extent 
of the furniture in this part of the house, as nothing more 
is needed for her comfort. 

The kitchen is a bit more elaborate. It is separated 
from the living room by a crossbar fence, and boasts a 
low stool, several large, clean, shining buckets, a very big 
round, red, tub with low sides, and seven square wooden 
boxes which serve as a kitchen cabinet. These boxes hold 
the vegetables and fruits from which Mary's chef pre¬ 
pares her meals. 


[ 131 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Each day, if Mary could read, a menu like this might 
be put before her. 


Beets 

Carrots 

Onions 


Breakfast 
7:00 A. M. 


Bran mash 
Clear, cold water. 


Apples 

Oranges 

Bananas 


Dinner 
3:30 P. M. 


Bran mash 
Clear, cold water. 


But since it is not possible for her to select her own 
dishes, her meals are put before her in the combinations 
which are best for her. It is probably just as well that 
she cannot pick and choose, since she might be like her 
sometimes foolish human friends who eat too much, or 
neglect their spinach! 

The large buckets are the measuring cups into which 
the chef cuts up the vegetables or the fruits according to 
which meal he is preparing. Breakfast is always vege- 
tables: dinner is always fruits, but not always the same 
kind of vegetables or the same kinds of fruits. Bran mash 
is combined with whatever else is on the menu, and the 
whole concoction is poured into the big, round, low tub. 


[ 132 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


Mary knows very well when the cook is in the kitchen. 
She stays close by waiting for the table to be set. This is 
a simple operation too—the tub is set on the floor of the 
room which is not only a livingroom'bedroom, but now 
breakfast nook as well. Her big, heavydiomed head is 
lowered eagerly over the tub even before her meal is 
brought in, so that the minute she is served the finger' 
like tip of her upper lip is busy pushing the food into her 
mouth. This little fingerlike tip resembles an elephant’s 
trunk in miniature, although it is not noticeable when 
she is not eating. 

She eats daintily and carefully, not gulping down her 
food as so large an animal might be expected to do. She 
eats slowly, raising her head now and then to make sure 
that the waiter is bringing her the drink of water with 
which the repast is brought to a close. It takes two buckets 
of clear, cool water to satisfy Mary’s thirst before she 
leaves the dirty dishes for someone else to worry about 
and waddles sedately from the room to sun herself in the 
patio. 

If Mary were at home in her native country, Africa, 
her menu would be similar, since leaves, roots and grains 


[ 133 } 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


are her natural diet. But she would have to look for her 
food herself, and then go down to the river Congo or the 
river Lompoco, for a drink. She would do this at night 
however, since the rhinoceros, like the hippopotamus, 
forages for food at night, and sleeps, suns himself, or 
hides in his lair by day. 

It is a long way from Africa to Hollywood. Mary 
arrived there by way of Hamburg, Germany, the home of 
the great Hagenbeck Zoo and animal dealers. One of 
their representatives came all the way with Mary in Sep- 
tember, 1933, to see her well established in her new home 
on the M-G-M lot. Here she was to star with Johnny 
Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan and His 
Mate. 

So far, this is Mary's only appearance as a motion pic¬ 
ture actress, but since she is the only rhinoceros in Cali¬ 
fornia, or for that matter, on the Pacific Coast, she is apt 
to be cast as often as one of her kind is needed in a picture. 

She played her part so well, and has proved herself to 
be of such a comparatively amiable temperament, that 
she will no doubt be in demand frequently. Her trainer, 
Mr. George Emerson, sings her praises. She is the third 


[ 134 } 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


rhinoceros he has worked with and he finds her most 
responsive to his kindly treatment. When he enters the 
fenced'in yard of her home, she comes to him for a pat 
of greeting. To other persons outside the fence she pays 
scant attention. 

A rhinoceros in its native haunts would charge at a 
man who came this close. In fact any noise is enough to 
start a charge in the direction from which it comes. The 
poor rhinoceros takes no chances on his naturally weak 
eyesight, but relies on his sensitive hearing and sense of 
smell to detect danger. He then can charge toward it. 

When Mary is acting, she can be made to charge this 
way, just as she charged at Cheeta, the chimpanzee in 
Tarzan and His Mate. On the jungle set at the studio, ac' 
comodations similar to her permanent home are main' 
tained. Here she whiles away the time until her scenes 
are ready to be filmed. Then she is led from her quarters 
through the jungle, but always over the same path and in 
the same direction, so that when she is sent running 
through the jungle as the cameras are whirring, she will 
follow the path which it has become a habit to follow and 
will be led by it back into her pen. 


[ 135 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


This plan takes advantage of the rhinoceros’ natural 
habit of always following a certain path through the jun- 
gle on its way to eat or drink. Hunters tell of having 
whole camps destroyed because some inexperienced per¬ 
son who couldn’t recognize the trail of a rhinoceros had 
pitched his camp immediately across his path. When a 
rhinoceros finds something in his way, there is no side¬ 
stepping. He goes straight through, scattering the ob¬ 
stacle to the four winds. He is impulsive and fearless, but 
with his huge head lowered, the horn on his snout well- 
placed to do as much damage as possible, he is a formi¬ 
dable enemy and a fast one in spite of his great bulk and 
short, thick legs. A quick side-step is his enemy’s only 
escape. His short-sighted eyes cannot see what he is 
charging quickly enough for him to change his course 
and suddenly step aside to catch his victim. 

So far, Mary has seen fit to behave herself, but there 
is always the danger that she may suddenly act the part 
of the wild animal she is. Before she was brought to the 
United States, she had become well acquainted enough 
with man not to charge at him in fear and in anger. She 
has even made friends with Teddy, a small dog who comes 


[ 136 ] 



WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


calling on her every day. But after all, she is not many 
months removed from the jungles, and might readily de- 
velop into a wild animal, very strong and ungovernable, 
should she really take occasion to act like one. 

Mr. Emerson has broken her so he can ride on her 
back, but riding her is always dangerous even for him. 
So when in Tarzan and His Mate, Johnny Weissmuller 
jumped on her back in the scene which follows Mary’s 
attack on the chimpanzee, it took a great deal of courage 
on his part. 

Mary is an excellent representative of her family, the 
common, or black rhinoceros of Africa, and although she 
differs in several ways from her cousins who live in India, 
Java and Sumatra, she probably will at some time repre' 
sent them too in a motion picture. 

In her way, Mary is the studio’s most individual ao- 
tress. There is great rivalry among the large studios as 
to which one has the most popular star, but no one can 
gainsay the fact that the MetrO'Goldwyn'Mayer Studios 
has the biggest one. There is none to compare with Mary. 


[ 137 ] 



CHAPTER NINE 

OSCAR 

THE PENGUIN 

I T was inevitable that Oscar should become a motion 
picture actor. He lives very near Hollywood for 
one thing, for his home, the Ocean Park Fishing 
and Amusement Pier, is not many miles away from the 
studios. Then too, since Admiral Byrd returned from the 
South Pole bringing among other treasures the reels of 
film in which the little penguins were such willing actors, 
people began to be familiar with the sight of these plump, 
merry birds. They became favorites of the screen imme- 

[ 138 ] 




































WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


diately, and the motion picture producers judged, and 
rightly too, that people would enjoy seeing them more 
often. 

But right here arose a difficulty. The penguin’s home 
is at the South Pole, never at the North Pole, and the 
South Pole was eight thousand miles from Hollywood. 
Penguins do come as far north as the Galapagos Islands 
off the coast of South America. The cold Humboldt Cun 
rent entices them that far, carrying them along with it 
as it flows northward from the Antarctic Circle. But even 
the Galapagos Islands are many miles from the United 
States. So it is not to be wondered at that we in North 
America had never seen or indeed heard very much about 
them. It has been only in the last few years that penguins 
have been added to the larger aquariums and zoos in New 
York, San Diego and San Francisco. 

Of course it couldn’t be that Oscar knew of this short' 
age of penguin actors when he appeared one day swim' 
ming in the surf of Santa Monica Bay. No one knows 
how this sturdy little fellow came to be there all by him' 
self some eight thousand miles away from home. Perhaps 
he may have wandered off a ship bringing him to a new 
home in the San Francisco aquarium. But Captain Oe' 


[ 141 ] 









WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


finger, one of his devoted owners, did not stop to figure 
this out when he sighted Oscar. He hurried to pick him 
up out of the water with a net and carry him back to the 
pier which is now his home. 

One of the fishermen who came daily to the pier was 
a little short man who walked with a peculiar rolling 
motion, his feet spread far apart, spanking the pavement 
as he flopped along in his heavy shoes. His name was 
Oscar, and for him Oscar was named, so much did they 
resemble each other in their gait and in the awkward mam 
agement of their big feet. 

Captain Oefinger is president of the company which 
owns one of the fishing barges anchored some distance 
out in the ocean. Men, women, and often children are 
taken out by fast launches to these large barges. These 
are anchored far enough out to make it possible to catch 
the deep sea fish that do not come in close to shore— 
barracuda, big tunas and deep sea bass. The bait used to 
catch these large fish is live bait—little herrings and sar' 
dines. The men who own these barges, like Captain 
Oefinger, supply this bait to the people who fish from 
their barges. For this purpose, large tanks filled daily 
with fresh salt water have been built at the ends of the 
[ 142 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


piers, and these are kept well stocked with the shining, 
silvery little fish. 

This sort of tank is Paradise for a penguin, for the 
delicacy he likes best in all the world is herring. If Oscar 
felt the least bit lonesome and forlorn, he must have been 
ready to bray with pleasure when this feast was set before 
him. Salt water to swim in, and all the herring he could 
eat! What bliss for a penguin! And this is the secret of 
Oscar’s welhbeing and contentment. He has the things 
which are natural for him to want. This is why he is in 
such excellent health, and lives so happily away from his 
antarctic home. 

From the day he was lifted from the water in a small 
net and brought to his ocean view home, he made many 
friends, hosts of people who come to visit him regularly. 
A large room at the end of the pier, the office of his own¬ 
ers, is where he may be found when he is not on location 
playing in a picture. It is an interesting place, smelling 
strongly, but naturally of fish. Great coarse nets hang 
about on the walls, their cork floats forming a diagonal 
design of dark spots against the grey-white of the nets. 
Racks of fish poles, long ones and very stout ones, stand 
at the ends of the room. Boxes of tackle are arranged 

[ 143 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


neatly on the shelves. Everything is kept in readiness for 
the sportsmen who sally forth to do battle with the spir¬ 
ited barracuda and tuna. 

A long counter separates the office from the rest of 
the pier. At one end is one of the tanks where swim the 
tiny herring and sardines destined to be bait or a meal for 
Oscar. At the other end are rows of bottles which hold 
specimens of all sorts of deep sea oddities preserved in 
alcohol—baby octopuses, sea horses and many other curi¬ 
osities known only to people who live by the sea. 

Fish scales are scattered over the floor of the office, 
and among them in one comer is Oscar’s own private do¬ 
main, a pen about four feet square fenced around with 
wire netting. It seems a small place in which to pen up an 
active individual like Oscar, but the truth of the matter 
is that he is seldom in it. 

For the men who work with Captain Oefinger are 
devoted to Oscar, especially Mr. Camp, Mr. Hodge, and 
Mr. “Slim” Thompson who at present is his guardian. 
They welcome every opportunity to fetch him from his 
little wire pen and set him on top of the counter to stmt 
before admiring visitors, or waddle up and down the pier. 


[ 144 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


He flaps his flippers happily when one of these men 
approaches his pen, and stretches himself forward eagerly 
ready to settle comfortably onto the hand of the person 
who lifts him out. He knows this means a swim in the 
tank and the opportunity to feast on herring which he 
loves to catch head first and swallow whole. He learned 
very early when his mother taught him to catch them that 
even a very tiny fish swallowed tail first means trouble 
and great discomfort, for when swallowed that way, the 
scales scrape his throat. 

Once that friendly hand stretched down to him had 
meant a swim in the ocean, for he was often allowed this 
privilege. He was content with his new home and was 
always ready to be brought back onto the pier. But one 
day while he was swimming in the ocean near the pier, 
something frightened him and he dove under water and 
disappeared. Penguins are swift underwater swimmers. 
It is their protection from their natural enemies—seals, 
sharks and sea leopards—whose meals consist largely of a 
generous supply of plump penguins. 

Captain Oefinger thinks it was a motor boat putting 
in at the pier that looked to Oscar like a shark. At any 


[ 145 ] 






WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


rate, Oscar was missing for ten days and great mourning 
settled down over the pier. Not only were his friends 
sorry he was gone, but his owners were dismayed beyond 
measure for Oscar had been engaged to make a picture, 
The Penguin Pool Murder, and here he was running off 
like a temperamental star. 

He had already broadcasted over the radio, braying a 
greeting in his donkey-like voice. Now the radio was en- 
listed in the search for him. On the tenth day of grieving, 
a telephone call came from La Jolla, one hundred ten miles 
down the coast from Los Angeles. Oscar had been found 
perched disconsolately on some rocks just off shore. A 
man swam out to him and Oscar presented every evidence 
of delight at renewing acquaintance with a human being. 
One of his owners hastened to La Jolla and brought the 
wanderer back in time to fulfill his contract with the RKO 
Studios, co-starring with Miss Edna May Oliver and Mr. 
Jimmie Gleason. 

Since then, Oscar doesn’t go swimming in the ocean. 
He is too valuable now to be subjected to anything which 
might frighten him. A motion picture star whose salary 
is one hundred twenty-five dollars a week must be care- 


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fully guarded. His big tank, well stocked with his favorite 
food seems to satisfy him, and if he misses the broad sweep 
of the ocean, he never complains. 

In fact he seems to prefer water in smaller portions. 
Not long ago when he was on location with a company 
from the Paramount Studio making a picture called No 
More Women, his valet and constant companion. Slim 
Thompson, took him to a secluded cove along the beach 
for his bath, which to Oscar is a very important event in 
his daily schedule. But Oscar refused to bathe, just swam 
about playing. 

A large tub was borrowed from a fisherman and filled 
with clean sea water as his tank at home is filled daily. 
Then, and then only, did he proceed to the business at 
hand which resulted in a clean, shining Oscar, every 
silvery'white feather in his vest in place, nicely combed by 
his long bill. Oscar is most particular about his appear' 
ance. 

The list of pictures to Oscar’s credit at present is brief, 
but each one finds him with a longer part to play, so sue' 
cessful an actor has he become. Following his debut in 
the Penguin Pool Murder, Blue Blackbirds, featuring Moran 
and Mack, the Two Black Crows, was his next venture. 


[ 149 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


During the filming of this picture he earned the name 
of “One-take-Oscar” because he always does his bit per¬ 
fectly the first time, but refuses to go through that same 
bit again that same day. This name has stuck to him, 
for the truth is demonstrated every time he appears in a 
picture cast. Where another star must have rehearsals, 
and shot after shot taken until he goes through the action 
properly, one is all Oscar needs. 

The man who directed the picture No More Women , 
Mr. Albert Rogell, didn’t realize that at last he had before 
him the perfect actor who required no rehearsals, who did 
what was expected of him from the moment the cameras 
started grinding until the end of the scene. He wanted 
Slim Thompson to try him out first in a scene in an 
hotel hallway. Oscar was supposed to waddle the length 
of the hall all by himself and go into a certain room four 
doors down the hall. But it was explained that Oscar 
worked better with no rehearsal, and so, after much per¬ 
suasive talk on the part of Mr. Thompson, the scene was 
shot. Unfortunately it was not used in the completed pic¬ 
ture, but Oscar did his part so well he must be given credit 
for it. 

He was held at the head of the stairway while Slim, 

[ 150 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


carrying a nice, fresh herring, walked up the stairs, round¬ 
ed the comer and walked down the hall to the fourth 
doorway where he went in and closed the door. This of 
course was not part of the action to be shown in the pic¬ 
ture and was done before the cameras were set to turning. 
Then, when the cameramen were ready, Oscar was re¬ 
leased to meander into the picture. He looked about at 
the head of the stairs as though getting the lay of the 
land, and then started his march down the hall. He came 
to the first door, stopped and looked inquiringly at it, 
then went on shaking his head. He paused at the second 
and at the third doors, but when he came to the fourth, 
he stopped and waited while Slim opened the door. Then 
Oscar hurried in as though that was where he meant to 
go all the time. It was perfect. 

Of course he had seen where Slim, who at that mo¬ 
ment meant a fresh herring to him, had gone, and he had 
heard his name called when he reached the fourth door. 
But to those fortunate people who saw this scene in the 
projection room before it was taken out of the final nega¬ 
tive of the film, he seemed to be doing it completely on 
his own. He was supposed to appear in only four scenes 
in this picture, but so successful an actor was he that a 
[in] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


longer part was written in for him, and he came home 
with makeup on his beak, a full-fledged star. 

A great deal of credit for Oscars success must be given 
to these men who are devoted to him, who study every 
move he makes naturally and who devise means to make 
him do these things when they want him to. Their pa¬ 
tience, as in the case of anyone who works with animals, 
must be infinite. It is amusing to see how attached the 
people who work with him have become. As Slim 
Thompson says, “Why, when we’re on location and 
we’ve had a hard day, I find myself sitting in our hotel 
room talking to Oscar as though he were a person. And 
he just waddles around the room paying no attention to 
me.” 

Of course Oscar does not understand words, but as all 
animals and birds do, he associates sounds with certain 
things. Slim can stand at the end of the tank while Oscar 
is swimming and feasting, and talk himself blue in the face 
trying to get him to waddle up the gangway built for him 
up from the water to the edge of the tank. But Oscar 
goes on blissfully swimming, diving and chasing fish. 
However just let him say, “Want to take a walk?” and 
Oscar shambles hurriedly up the gangplank and stands 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


hunched forward ready to squirm onto the hand which 
he has come to know will carry him out onto the pier for 
a shuffling saunter in the sun. 

As for talking himself, he raises his voice only when 
he is happy or is expecting something he especially likes. 
In the morning the first duty of one of the boys is to chop 
or saw up some kindling wood. Immediately after that he 
fills Oscar’s tank with fresh sea water. Oscar knows now 
what is to follow this wood sawing, and he stands in his 
corner doing his best by his harsh squawking to hasten 
the woodsawing process and get on with the important 
business of tending to him. 

Soon after this the small boat comes in with the morn¬ 
ing’s catch of live bait. The hoist squeaks with the weight 
of the big net full of wiggling, silvery little fish. This is 
sweet music to Oscar’s ear for it means a nice lively break¬ 
fast. So again he brays forth in his loud voice, urging 
haste in getting them within his reach. 

So accustomed has he become to raising his voice in 
anticipation of these two events, that his friends play a 
joke on him sometimes when they want to get him to 
bray. They saw industriously on a piece of wood. He 
isn’t always fooled by it, but very often, perhaps when he 


[ 153 ] 


WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


forgets it is not morning and the right time for wood¬ 
sawing, for he will straighten up, throw back his head, 
and bray long and loud. 

There is something so ridiculously human about a 
penguin. He seems to be a miniature of ourselves with 
his waddling walk and droll movements of his head. His 
friendliness too, in contrast with the timidity of other 
birds, makes him especially lovable. No wonder Slim 
thinks of Oscar almost as another person. 

The quaintness of penguins has appealed to explorers 
of the Antarctic for many years, men who laughed at 
them, enjoyed them, looked forward to seeing them on 
their trips to the frozen South, but never molested them. 
Penguins have never had cause to fear what may seem 
to them to be just another kind of penguin, much larger 
than themselves but very much the same shape and not 
a little unlike themselves in behavior. Man has been kind 
to the penguin. 

Explorers have been writing about these little birds 
who greet them year after year on their expeditions, but 
few of us ever see the technical reports of scientific expedi¬ 
tions. Dr. Racovitza, a famous naturalist of the Belgica 
Expedition in 1896 wrote this about them. 




WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


“Imagine a little old man, standing erect, provided 
with two broad paddles instead of arms, with a head small 
in comparison with the plump, stout body; imagine this 
creature with his back covered with a dark coat spotted 
with blue, tapering behind to a pointed tail that drags on 
the ground and adorned in front with a glossy white 
breastplate. Have this creature walk on his two feet, and 
give him at the same time a droll little waddle and a com 
tinual movement of his head, and you have something 
before you which is irresistibly attractive and comical.” 

A report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1912 ex- 
plains how the word penguin originated. The name was 
given these birds by the Spanish navigators of the seven- 
teenth century. They called them penguins from the 
word Penguigo, meaning grease, a name which fits them 
well because of the abundance of fat which at a certain 
time of the year covers these little birds. 

These Spanish navigators must have seen the penguins 
just before their moulting time, the sad day when they 
lose their full-dressed appearance and become dejected 
bits of bird life. This loosening and dropping of their 
feathers makes them buoyant in the water, so that they 
cannot dive for their food. So they must store up as great 


[ 155 ] 





WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


a reserve as possible against this most uncomfortable peri¬ 
od when they would starve to death if they had not laid 
up a supply of fat. During this deplorable seven or eight 
weeks, the poor penguin can do nothing but sit and mope, 
grouchy and touchy. He is about as sick as a penguin 
could be and there is nothing he can do about it but wait. 

Oscar is no exception. There are any number of per¬ 
sons who would gladly catch his food for him if he cared 
to eat, but the years of habit, and the instinct which makes 
this a period of starvation are too much for him, and he 
mopes just as dejectedly as do any of his relatives in the 
Antarctic. He is very sensitive about his appearance too 
for during the process he loses every feather he has to 
his name. 

His owners, respecting his natural reluctance to be 
seen in this state of full undress, put a large cardboard box 
at the end of the tank runway, and at the approach of 
anyone, even his best friends, he retires hastily with down¬ 
cast eyes into the seclusion it affords him. Every once in a 
while, a head peeps out at the end of a scrawny neck that 
resembles the neck of a little old man who has lost his 
collar. It is a sad time. All of Oscar’s friends are just as 


[ 156 ] 







WILD ANIMAL ACTORS 


happy as he is when moulting is over for another year 
and he is his own cheerful self once more. 

There are many different kinds of penguins. Oscar 
belongs to the species called “jackass” penguins because 
of their voices which do sound like nothing more than the 
bray of that long-eared animal. Scientists can name the 
rest of them, distinguishing them by their size, coloring 
and varying habits, but to us who love them and enjoy 
them, they all look more or less alike. 

Roland Young, another actor and a comedian too, is 
very fond of penguins. He has a large collection of them, 
made of wood, glass, porcelain, even a real one stuffed to 
a speaking likeness of Oscar. He has written a little verse 
with which this story ends: 

“The little penguins look alike, 

Even as Ike resembles Mike. 

They are so gentle and so nice, 

God keeps these little birds on ice” 


[ 157 ] 
























































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